Hydrangea
by VelaEridanus
Summary: Sakura investigates all things that goes bump in the night. She gets hired by the Uchihas to investigate the famed Uchiha Manor thats been haunted and been closed off to any outsiders. But one man stands in the way of her learning its secrets; the very attractive and aloof Sasuke Uchiha. SasxSak
1. The Infamous Ghost Hunter

**I've decided to update this chapter, it just doesn't seem to catch what Im reaching for. Hopefully this works out better! Let me know what you like about it.**

 **I apologize for my long absence from writing on this site. I've still been a creeper who keeps up on reading other stories, I haven't had much time to myself for the longest time to really spend effort on my own material. There have been times were I've been really motivated, but I've gotten so busy that I lose all my ideas along the way. Things are looking up for me now though, and I plan to hang around for a good while.~ I wish for you all to be entrapped in this new story I'm excited about!**

 **Peace~**

Summary: Sakura, after the mysterious death of her parents, has become an infamous paranormal investigator. However, she has her own past she's running from. She's on the verge of hanging up her ghost hunting jacket until the curse of Uchiha manor comes her way. She becomes completely ensnared, nobody besides the Uchiha have been allowed in the house since the Uchiha massacre 100 years ago. It's predicted to be the most haunted house in America, and she can't turn it down. She meets Sasuke, the last main descendant who seems aloof and out of time. It can't be a haunting if you're not dead after 100 years, right? Her meddling with the supernatural may catch up with her this time.

X

Prequel

"Hand me the Ovilus!"

A small square device was smushed into her hand quickly. She flipped the switch and cackled to life briefly before it was silent again. Thomas, Sakura's blue-capped companion, held a portable camera up and close to his body as if he was afraid to take up too much space in the room. He intently kept the camera facing ahead of them, in case he and Sakura missed any activity or moving shadows in the house. It was the haunting hour, right on the dot, as they arrived and entered the little prairie house. They both wore dark wash jeans and dark hoodies to blend in to the night. Sakura kept her pastel hair pulled back and hidden in her hoodie so she didn't stick out. Her shoes were simple converse and a little worn, but quite against the floor boards. All their equipment was tightly packed in a forest green backpack that Thomas was selected to carry. Other cameras were strewn across several areas in the house; so far nothing had been recorded, but their endeavors were just beginning.

They had just been in this living room only 10 hours prior, sitting with a lovely family who were stricken with fear and grief. This is where Sakura would begin her search. Thomas preoccupied himself with the corner of the room. He felt more comfortable with a solid wall behind him so he could keep an eye on everything and prevent anything from sneaking up behind him. He occasionally darted his camera in different directions, fearing the many shadows that came with the late hour. The night knew how to play tricks on the simple minded.

Sakura rolled her eyes at his paranoid antics, and openly proceeded around the room with confident strides and genuine interest. Printed furniture, bright vases dulled in the absence of light, and old knick-knacks and china in shelves and a curio. It was supposed to be a little grandma dream home during the day. She sat down on the floral print couch, sinking into the cushions and leaning her head back. She closed her eyes in concentration and rested the ovilus in her lap. She breathed in deeply and listened.

All she could hear was Thomas' fidgeting as stood in the corner, zooming the camera into where she was sitting. They both stayed in silence, listening for 5 minutes before she opened her eyes. "Nothing so far." She concluded, as if answering an unheard question. She pulled out a small sheet and flicked her flashlight on that had been resting on her hip. It was a small drawn map of all the rooms in the house. She contemplated where to go next. "Maybe we should try the kitchen?" Thomas suggested. Sakura hadn't so much as searched the room, but he knew that Sakura had a way about knowing things. He relaxed, if she said nothing was here than there was nothing here.

Sakura nodded, careful to keep the ovilus in clear view, and continued on to where she remembered the kitchen was. Thomas made sure to follow on her heels like he was afraid to be left alone. Sakura and Thomas had a strange dynamic ever since they had started doing this. They had done several cases this way, but the fear and paranoia Thomas felt while creeping around someone's house never faded. Sakura, on the other hand, is never afraid, and tells him to grow some balls. He would begrudgingly continue on, because her confidence is comforting at times.

The money is also a huge benefit.

They clear the entire first floor and end up empty handed. They loop through the main rooms and Sakura's steps get a brisker with each one. Maybe there's nothing here after all? She begins to get frustrated, because she feels like she must be missing something. So far, they've come up short and she isn't sure what she's doing wrong. Her intuition leads her to the foyer. Her grip on the ovilus tightens as her head turns to peer up the stairs to the second floor. She pauses to go over everything discussed earlier, trying to remember anything she's missed. Thomas senses her frustration, and back-walks to give her space. However, he is still facing forward to keep the camera locked on Sakura and doesn't see the end table behind him. "Woah." His back hits the corner of table, and he spins around to sturdy it out before the vase on top goes toppling over. Thankfully, the plant in the vase is fake so no dirt falls out. He lets out a sigh of relief. In the dark he can see it is a bright blue pot with fake hibiscus flowers flowing out. He sets the camera down on the table, still pointing Sakura, and fixes his mess.

Sakura is angry, about to lecture him about being _quite_ at this time of night, when she feels it.

She's never known what it is, she calls it her intuition, but suddenly something changes around them. She closes her mouth that was ready to spew chastising words and holds the ovilus out again as if catching fireflies. "Something's here." She whispers. Suddenly her ear blares, and she's clutching at her earpiece before she goes deaf. Poor Thomas, not prepared for the abrupt noise, jumps a foot in the air and knocks over the vase he had so delicately fixed. Jonathan, the man behind the scenes, yells into the receiver "We have movement upstairs in the old bedroom!" Sakura curses at his loud tone. Why does everyone around her have to be so loud at a time like this?! But she cannot be distracted by these _idiots_ around her or else she'll lose the trail she just picked up. Her intuition requires her to remain collected and organized.

She pinches the bridge of her noise and takes a deep breath. She reaches up and gently presses the button on her earpiece with her forefinger and replies "Next time give us a warning before you blow our eardrums out." She doesn't expect a reply, but before the communication is cut off she hears him snickering to himself. Unlike Thomas, Jonathan remains in the comfort of his high-tech van, watching all the rooms that they've set cameras in.

Jonathan's comment confirms her theory. Something is upstairs. She waves Thomas to follow her with a flick of the wrist and tests out the first stair. It's a beautiful polished wood and relatively modern which means it won't creak as much when venturing further. After making sure it won't make a lot of noise, Sakura continues her ascent on the stairs with caution and determination.

Thomas pulls out his flashlight and flicks it on in an attempt to see past the black mass at the top. He stands on his toes to see any remnants of the upstairs hallway but can't see anything at the top past Sakura. She turns to him at the top of the stairs and cocks her eyebrow at him as if to say 'are you coming?' and continues on without any reply. Thomas shakes his head; weren't all girls supposed to be at least a little afraid of the dark?

Thomas reaches the top, flashlight first, to find that Sakura is stopped in the middle of the hallway deep in thought. With her forefinger and thumb resting on her chin and distant gaze glued to the wall, she is somewhat lost and indecisive. Finally she notices that Thomas has reached her, and clarifies what's suddenly bothered her. "We never checked the basement." She ponders. "We didn't have to, Jon said the only activity we've had is up here." Thomas replies.

"But, they said the basement is where they've had the most trouble…and yet we've had nothing. Isn't that strange?" She questions. Thomas shrugs his shoulders, "we can't control how these things work." "Yes, I understand that perfectly well." Sakura retorted.

The air around them is cold and dense as they make their way steadily down the hallway. There are a couple doors up here, but Sakura knows which one they need to go to. The white-painted door on the far right is the one they're looking for. She feels static encircling her body as she stands in front of the door, one hand circling the knob. She hesitates only slightly, to make sure Thomas is ready, before slowly turning the knob and swinging the door open. She stands at the entrance to survey the room. She sees the making of a simple bedroom with a bed with white cotton sheets, a vanity littered with jewelry, a dresser that looked like several articles of clothing had been taken out, and a closed closet with shuttered doors. Her heart is light and fluttering, but her legs and pockets are heavy with anticipation.

Pushing past her heavy legs, she makes sturdy steps to the center of the room. Thomas remains in the doorway to capture the whole room on camera. Sakura sits down at the edge of the bed, and gently cups the ovilus. She holds it out again with a straight and assuring arm. "Is there anyone residing in this room." she asks in a concise voice. She waits a few beats, but she does not receive a response. She tries again. "Marianne, are you here?" Again, no response. Sakura frowns and then turns to Thomas, "Are you picking anything up?" she asks. Thomas shakes his head lightly. Maybe incentive is needed before she receives any feedback. She reaches into her pocket to feel the cool metal over her fingers. And suddenly the atmosphere stiffens.

"… _emerald.."_

Sakura's ears perk at the wispy voice resounding from the speaker. Thomas freezes on the spot. Sakura attempts to stay calm, clutching the jewelry in her pocket before pulling out to reveal what she's been hiding. It's a beautiful emerald jewel, dangling off a long golden chain that shimmers under the beams of Thomas' flashlight. She delicately places it next to her, she knows how important the necklace is. "Your daughter gave this to me to return Marianne. Are you angry that your granddaughters took it?" The necklace was an heirloom belonging to Marianne, but Claire and Anne had taken it a couple weeks ago out of grief. They wanted something to remember Marianne by after she had passed away in her sleep. She had been laying on the bed Sakura was sitting on when she had gone.

"… _no…"_ the small voice whimpered.

Sakura sat up straighter and looked at Thomas again. "Are you getting this?" She asks him. He nods his head yes, afraid that his voice will fail him at the moment. The interaction is easygoing, which was more than what she could say for most of her jobs. She looks around at for any visible evidence of the entity called Marianne, but she doesn't see anything.

Wait, she sees a straight reflective light at the vanity. There's a part of the mirror that's slightly warped, in the shape of a head and shoulders. Sakura slowly raises her hand to point at the vanity. Thomas follows her lead and jumps back into the wall in shock when he sees the small darkened indent on the vanity chair. There's a slight shake in his hands as focuses the camera. Sakura ignores him and speaks again. Her voice cuts through the silence like a knife.

"Marianne, whats keeping you hear? Your family loves and wants you to continue on peacefully-"

SLAM!

Sakura's breathe hitches and Thomas yelps at the sudden clatter. It was resounding and loud coming from somewhere else in the house.

"… _closet…"_

The ovilus wasn't coming in as clear as before with static breaking up the woman's voice. Sakura is having trouble hearing what the deceased woman is saying; it had sounded like she was trying to say something was in a…closet? _'That's strange, is there interference going on? But the ovilus shouldn't be able to pick up other wavelengths.'_ Sakura cranks the volume up on the little paranormal machine. As Sakura tinkers with the device she completely misses the _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ coming from downstairs.

Thomas, now pale as a ghost (pun intended), had not missed it.

Thomas whips his head around, his hooding swooshing down as he stares down the hallway. Using his flashlight, he creeps to the edge of the hallway and peers down the stairs with the most delicate steps he can muster. He strains his eyes for anything, but everything is so dark he can't see past the beam of his flashlight. The earpieces blared to life again and Thomas almost drops his flashlight. His heart is ready to explode out of his chest at this point with all the sudden boisterous noise. "We have movement in the basement! There was a shadow before the basement door opened by itself!" Sakura stops her fiddling, eyes widening at the sudden news. Thomas comes running, all delicacy forgotten, back down the hallway. "Sakura did you-"

"Yes I heard it." She replies quickly. She stops messing with the ovilus and looks around. Thomas is leaning on the door frame and panting. The manifestation that had been in front of the vanity can no longer be seen and the indent on the seat is gone. Where had she gone? Did she disappear, or was she the one now making such an uproar?

"Marianne….are you still there? ….Is there anyone else that resides in this house?" Sakura is hesitant to ask these questions, and even more hesitant to hear an answer.

"… _yes."_ Sakura's heart quickens. She had thought she'd missed something! How could be so careless and not do _all_ of the research before coming in guns blazing! Sakura becomes frantic, and her words start to quicken and falter. Ghosts are one thing, but facing the unknown leaves too many uncertainties and probabilities of _things_.

"Who is it? Where did they come from?"

" _HANNYA…"_

 _Creeeaaak_

Heavy footsteps are resounding from down the hallway on the bottom of the stairs. The stairs hadn't creaked once when she or Thomas had gone up them, and it frightened Sakura that there was a presence that would _intentionally_ make its presence known. No sensors had picked up any disturbances and no activity until now had been documented. Sakura felt an ominous feeling that something had been hiding from them this whole time. Thomas was surprised to see panic spread across Sakura's face with her eyes wide and nostrils flared.

"Who is it? Marianne," she paused, " _what_ is it?"

"…"

Goosebumps ran across her flesh when all she received was a deadly silence. Ghosts were never just afraid of other ghosts. Or was there something more powerful, blocking Marianne from coming through to communicate?

" _get…out…"_

Sakura gasped. A deep male voice broke through the silence, but it didn't come through the ovilus. It had come from down the hallway, where the raucous had come from. Thomas decided to flee from the doorway to stand by Sakura's side. She shot up from her seat on the bed and sat still. For a moment, she thought her eyesight was going dark and fuzzy, but realization dawned on her like a cold draft. The walls. Dark blotches were staining the walls around them and the wallpaper began to peel. Sakura's hands shook.

Clack, clack. Slow footsteps were descending down the hallway as the room began to darken with each ghastly step. She needed to leave. They really needed to leave, now.

But there was an itching in the back of her mind. Marianne had been trying to tell them something. There was something in this room, right now. Her body lead her as she marched towards the closet. Thomas was confused and shivering, the temperature had dropped considerably. "What are you doing?" He seethed, terror pouring out in every word. She peered at the white shuttered doors of the closet. They were slightly chipped in between the shutters and the knob was missing. _'She was trying to say something about the closet.'_ Sakura contemplated. She peered suspiciously at the chips. "Sakura!" Thomas begged. He swiveled toward the door and held up the camera, but he couldn't keep his hands steady. She wiggled her fingers in between the shutters, and pulled hard.

" _GIVE…IT…TO...ME…"_ The voice was getting louder and closer.

The doors hadn't even budged under her weight. There was definitely something here.

 _CRASH!_

She heard glass shatter in the hallway. Sakura pulled her fingers free of the doors. Their time here was up. "We need to get out of here." She announced, bending over the bed to grab the necklace again. "Okay." Thomas says slowly. They don't have many options right now on exits, and he's not too keen on going past a possible poltergeist throwing a temper tantrum. Thomas heads for the door, but Sakura stops him with a clutching hand on his shoulder that's squeezing just a little too tight. He's stunned for a moment, he can see a genuine fear emerging in her normally bright green eyes. "Alright," he says quietly. Thomas feels as though Sakura's sent him a curve ball by switching their roles. Normally, Thomas would lean to Sakura for confidence, strength, and comfort in situations like this. This Sakura, with a slight shake in her hand, was new to him. "It's nothing we haven't dealt with before." He says, attempting to give her assurance, "we just have to rush past-"

She grabbed him with her free hand and yanked at his shirt. "No no no no. We don't go that way."

"Then where?"

Sakura's eyes are wide like saucers. She can see dark patches protruding off the skin on her hand. She desperately pulls away and starts frantically trying to shake whatever off. Thomas stares in shock, too fear stricken to ask what's going on.

Sakura's gaze beelines to the window. "Come on, the window should be unlocked."

"The window?"

She knows she shouldn't, but she feels her head swivel in slow motion as she turns toward the bedroom door. She sees it, oh god. She can see it.

A pale, bony hand gripping the door.

"Yes!"

 _BOOM!_

Sakura darts for the window latch as the bedroom door slams against the wall. "Go, go, GO!" She knows not too look back again as she clumsily climbs her way out and jumps, reaching for anything. Sakura wasn't sure who screamed in those last moments, her or Thomas.

X

The television fizzes out as the tape ends abruptly. The last thing seen is Thomas' feet hitting the grassy ground and the silhouette of a panting Sakura on her hands and knees.

It's the next day, and here they are again, sitting in this small and flower printed living room. Sakura and Thomas share a floral loveseat across from 3 women on a matching couch with an elegant wood coffee table with a glass top between them. The TV is on a rolling cart just to the right of them, only showing static since the replay ended. Rosaline gets up to shut the small TV off with a tight lipped frown. Rosaline was the mother of the 2 girls beside her and daughter to Marianne; the entity Sakura had spoken with the night prior. She looked to be in her 50's, but the death of her mother had caused heavy bags under her eyes and unnecessary wrinkles. The oldest daughter, Tiffany, had her hands to her mouth as she continued to stare at the blank screen. She was the older of the sister's with her soft blonde hair pulled up and sat in a business suit like she had just got done with work. Anna, the youngest, had the most obvious distress with her mouth wide open and eyes squinty because they were close to tears. She looked around Sakura's age and was wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt with her slightly darker hair down. Her back was as straight as a board and she was barely keeping it together.

Sakura was now looking down at her hands with elbows bent on her knees. Thomas leaned back and rested his arm on the arm of the seat. "I'm sorry," Sakura started, leaning back up to catch their gaze, "I was unaware of the other entity. I wasn't able to communicate much with her. But now you know that _she's_ not upset with you."

The mother was the least shaken, but the creases on her forehead deepened. She was trying to be strong in front of her daughters, reaching a hand over to hold Tiffany's hand. "My mother, is she trapped here by whatever else?" She croaked. Sakura bent down to her burgundy backpack in between her feet and pulled out a manila file. She flopped it open, pulling out a picture and setting it on the table facing Rosaline. It was an old Polaroid of a man, wearing a cotton newsboys cap and a snazzy cotton jacket with some slacks. Rosaline picked up the picture to look at it better, but the deepening frown and confusion in her brow said it all. She had no clue who this man was or why Sakura was showing her this. She voiced her concerns.

"That," Sakura reached over and pointed at the face in the picture, "was your mother's first husband, Henry."

"What?!" She pulled the picture in to study it more closely as if trying to recognize anything about him. "My mother was never married to anyone else besides my father…"

"That she told you about. I did some digging in the county records here. I also did some asking around to some old friends of Marianne's. Henry was so in love with your mother that he bought this house and proposed to her on this patio. They were high school sweethearts, and as a wedding surprise he bought her this beautiful house. However, before they could properly move in there was an accident. There was a drive-by shooting and Henry was hit accidently by some gangsters. He attempted to go to her, and died in her arms in the basement. She was devastated, but he had already given her the house and everything in it. She didn't have the heart to get rid of all of it. Two years later, a military man came to town under business. She was already working as a teacher at the time. A year later they married and he became your father. But originally, this was his house." Sakura motioned her finger in a circle. "All of this was his."

"Then that ghost was that man," Tiffany spoke up, "is he angry at her? For getting remarried?"

"I don't think so. He died suddenly and tragically. Under those pretenses, the ghost can become lost and warped. He's no longer himself, but I think he recognized something."

Sakura dug back into the manila folder and pulled out another old polaroid and slid it across the table. All three of the women gasped as they came face to face with the gold emerald necklace they had taken from Marianne's jewelry box. "This was his engagement gift to her, before the ring. I still have it in my pocket. You said the activity started a couple weeks ago?"

"Well, theres always been something off about the house, but yes. Things started moving and noises were being heard at night right after she passed. We felt as though its intent was to hurt us."

"He wasn't angry at Marianne, he was angry you took this necklace. The necklace, to him, was always meant for Marianne. And that also explains why he suddenly appeared coming up the steps. He somehow knew it was back in the house when I pulled it out."

"Well, what do we do?"

"Well, from what we've seen he's a potential danger to your family. Seems like the negative energy in the house increased, and his intent on scaring you away. Safe bet would be to purify the house, so Marianne can pass in peace and the other spirit will follow. "

"Why would he have to scare off her family though? We're no danger." Sakura peered at Thomas before answering, "one of you is."

"What do you mean?"

"Has anyone else been here besides you? Related or otherwise?"

"Not that I know of. Who else would be able to get in?"

"Marianne said something about her closet, but when I tried to open the doors it wouldn't move. The doorknob was missing, and there were chips in between the shutters."

"Are you saying the ghost didn't take off the knob? That is was someone else."

"No, the ghost most definitely took off the knob. But only to keep prying hands away. Why would the white paint on the closet doors be withered between the shutters? Somebody tried to open them the same way I did."

"Oh, I bet it was my sister Gertrude. Devil of a woman has been searching tooth and nail for my mother's will. I made a promise to protect my mother's jewels from her before she died!"

 _Clack!_

Everyone in the room jumped.

"Why is he still doing things?" Anna cried.

A _tink_ was heard in the front of the door way.

The women and Thomas shrunk back as Sakura jumped up to investigate. The noise had come from the stairway. Thomas huffed and dragged himself off the loveseat to catch up to Sakura's quick steps. Rosaline stood up and grabbed both girls hands, to follow and avoid being alone. Sakura hunted down where the noise had come from and stopped at the front of the steps, completely astonished and wide eyed.

"Sakura?!" Thomas exclaimed. He ran up and grabbed her shoulder, but he noticed that her focus was at her feet. He followed her gaze. And when the 3 women emerged they saw it too and gasped.

It was a small rusty doorknob.

Sakura broke out into a grin, and being the only one not frozen by disbelief bent down and picked it up.

"Let's go find out what's in that closet. Shall we?"

X

"Oh," Anna spoke her first breathless words since she had arrived, "look at all this!"

Jewels. Lots of jewels of all colors, hidden in a plain shoebox in the bottom of the closet that was buried under some discarded clothing. Rosaline was reading a folded paper she had found sitting at the top. "This, this her will! We could never find it, but everything's here!"

X

"Thank you, so much for helping us you guys!" Rosaline looked much cheerier and younger without the grieving creases in her face. "No problem," Thomas replied, "now we know that Marianne can rest in peace now that she's done what she needed to do."

"And hopefully Henry!" Sakura stated matter-of-factly. They were standing on the porch now, bidding their goodbyes. "Oh!" Sakura remembered. She pulled out the emerald necklace and held it out to Rosaline. "I forgot I still had this." Sakura said. However, Rosaline surprised her by wrapping the necklace back into Sakura's hand. "You keep it," She said warmly, "for helping us out." Sakura beamed and buried it safely back into her pocket.

They waved once more as they jumped into Thomas' silver Sudan. Jonathan had already left for home, so it was just the 2 of them. The engine roared to life as he pulled out of the long driveway. The prairie house faded in the rear view mirror as they drove out of the suburbs and into the city.

"So, are we not gonna talk about it?" Thomas asked, tilting his head in the driver's seat to see her expression. It was cool and collected as always.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please, you were clutching my shoulder so hard you left marks. I've never seen you that scared. Of anything."

"Oh, that." Sakura never broke face. She was doing her best to ignore the gnawing sensation in her belly.

"Yeah, that."

"Nope."

"And why not?"

"Because you know why."

Thomas leaned back and sighed. Six years of friendship, and still she was shrouded in mystery. But she was the best damn paranormal investigator he had ever seen, and the best friend he could ask for.

Sakura sat back and pulled out the camera, looking through the footage for anything they might have missed. She still couldn't believe how she had reacted when 'Henry' had come through the speaker. It was a carnal fear that had consumed her, which was something she hadn't felt in a very long time. Something didn't seem right about him, or whatever she had seen. Henry had popped up in her frantic research when she was trying to find possible identities for their mystery hand, and he was the only reasonable explanation. But it was off. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was off.

Why had she seen her hand and the walls being engulfed in a dark substance?

She intently watched the replay as they cleared the main floor and made it to the bottom of the staircase. She rolled her eyes as the camera suddenly spun. Thomas really was clumsy at the worst times. The screen finally straightened, probably the moment when he was fixing the vase, when she noticed something. She reminded the part and paused.

The lens was facing her, showing an annoyed look on her face, but that wasn't what she was looking at. There was a shadow behind her. A tall, dense shadow in the archway of the other room. Her breath hitched. Had she been wrong?

Her hands shook until she dropped the camera.

"What the hell Sakura?!" Thomas yelled as he watched his baby fall under the seat. His cries fell on deaf ears. Because she had seen it. It had been in that house.

She had seen the glimpse of the red face peering through the dark in that screenshot.

End Prequel

X

Chapter 1

"Sakuraaaaaa!"

' _Why can't she ever let me sleep in peace!'_ Sakura cracked open a single eye to glare at the woman who was peering over her sleeping form, hovering much closer than she should be. All Sakura could see was Ino's bright blue eyes and feel her obnoxious breath on her face. Sakura groaned and closed her again. Taking a case always messed up her regular sleep schedule she tried so vainly to stick to. She had an especially hard time going to sleep after her troubles with the last case she had done. She rolled over to face the wall and pulled the covers over her head in an attempt to escape her roommate, but Ino was a woman that loved attention and was very persistent at the absolute worst times. "Oi!" Sakura swore that this chick was yelling right next to her ear, "it's almost 2 o' clock in the afternoon Sa-ku-ra. Normally, I'd let you sleep the day away-"

"Bullshit you would." Sakura interrupted. Ino gave the pile of blankets a stern look before continuing, "buuuut I was being a good friend and reminding you that you have a date with Kenji today."

Sakura grumbled again. She had been so wrapped up in everything she had completely forgotten. Kenji wanted to have dinner tonight at 6, and if Ino wouldn't have woken her she might've continued to sleep through the day and miss her 'important' date. A patch of hair emerged from the blankets, as well as a little make shift hole for communication.

"Alright, I'll be out in a minute." Ino nodded and got out of the way, but kept her residing spot on Sakura's bed. Sakura popped her pink head out, noticing her blonde friend still staring at her.

"What?" Sakura asked. Ino leans back on her hands to make herself comfy like she's planning to have a full discussion. _'Great.'_ Sarcasm dripping in her mind. The girl had just woken her up, and know she was getting set on her bed like there was going to be a very lengthy discussion that Sakura didn't want to have.

Ino glances around the Sakura's room, taking in the cream walls and burgundy sheets. Sakura's room has always been simple, filled with books and paranormal equipment littered on the ground. Ino, unlike Thomas, had basically known Sakura all her life. She was there in Sakura's happiest moments as well as the most devastating ones. When Sakura's parents had died, it was Ino to the rescue. Ino pushed for them to be roomies in college and helped Sakura get through grief. So, Sakura figured that any weird antics or girly girl habits Ino wanted share with her, she would happily comply. And Ino knew that, because that's what best friends were for.

"You know," She started, "I used to come in here more often to wake you up before you slept through the day. Not as many cases these days?" So that's what Ino wanted to talk about.

"I've just had more shifts at the hospital lately. I don't have any time for more cases."

"Oh yeah?" Ino turned to her. "You make a lot of money doing all those cases though, I don't see why you even need your job at the hospital." Sakura sat up and stretched.

"Oh I dunno, maybe because I like helping people and you don't get any benefits from creeping around old houses?" Sakura pulled the covers back and got up. She turned away from the blonde, hoping that Ino would see her getting ready and leave her be. But Ino knew her 'I'm avoiding this' tactics already. She wasn't going to fall for them.

"Sakura…what's really going on with you?"

Damn, Ino was sharper than she was giving her credit for. Well, she reasoned, she had no motive to lie to her oldest friend. Ino had always been there for here through thick and thin. Ino never liked being out of the loop either and she wouldn't stop bugging Sakura until she found out. It was only a matter of time before Ino figured it out anyways.

"Alright, you caught me." Sakura put her hands up in surrender for emphasis. "I'm thinking about quitting the business. For good. It's starting to take a toll on things like my social life." Ino continued to stare at her not believing a word the rosette said.

"Since when have you cared about that kind of stuff? You take those investigations as serious as the hospital. There's something your still not telling me." She scrutinized. Nothing got past Ino when it came to her best friend.

"I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have started it to begin with, my parents would want me to pursue something else."

"They would just want you to be happy Sakura. I thought that's what you were doing." Ino countered.

Sakura scoffed. "I just need to do this Ino. I can't sleep at night, all I have is these weird dreams since my last case. Something wasn't right about it. I can't help but feel like it's a warning." 

"A warning for what?"

Sakura paused, staring hard at her dresser as if it was going to be difficult to even get the words out. "The hell if I know, but it hasn't been this bad since my parents passed. The more cases I do, the higher the chance that I'm going to run into something dangerous. Like a poltergeist, or like…."

"A demon?" Ino finishes. Sakura looks at her before turning her back to dig through her dresser. "Well, yeah. Last case, there was something about whatever was in that house that petrified me. I'm losing it."

Ino turned her gaze to the faded red carpet. The events surrounding Sakura's parent's death was still surrounded with mystery. There were things that Sakura to this day had been unable to tell her, but Ino knew that the paranormal had become a part of her life that day. Sakura chased after dead loved ones perhaps to atone for her own absence of family.

Ino also knew that doing these cases was Sakura's way of staying connected with her absent parents. Helping other families with deceased loved ones gave Sakura warmth in her heart. Ino sighed; she wasn't sure how to help her out.

"Would it help if I came along with you? It would be like old times."

Sakura snorted before replying, "I don't think so. You're the loudest person I know, and you're a bigger baby than Thomas is."

Ino pouted at her. "No I'm not!" Sakura selected a simple green lace dress and laid it out next to Ino.

"I'll be fine Ino. I'm just thinking that maybe it's time to stop chasing after the past." Ino got up and began to dig in Sakura's closet.

"Well, it's always your choice and you should choose what makes you happy." Ino pulled out some gold ballet flats and handed them to her.

"Thanks Ino."

"No problem. Now hurry up, I haven't been able to eat since you weren't up and I managed to burn some eggs." Sakura shook her head before quickly running a brush through her messy hair. "Don't you think it's time you learned to cook? How are you supposed to impress your future husband?" Ino stopped ahead of her and turned around.

"As if. I don't need to cook when I can impress a man with _these_." She lifted her hands to showcase her breasts. "And then I can find a husband who will cook for me, thank you very much." Sakura laughed.

"Until then, I'm the fill-in chef?"

"Of course!"

"Fine, but you have to make me look super-hot for my date tonight."

"Agreed!"

Sakura walked into the kitchen to hear her phone blaring. She unplugged the charger and saw Thomas' name lit up on the screen. She answered the call. "Hey, what's up? Life of accounting so boring that you have to bug me?" She teased.

"Ha ha. Very funny. But I'm not going to let you ruin my excitement. I just got off the phone with a client and your not gonna believe-"

"Thomas, I don't think I'm up for another investigation right now."

"What? You serious? Your gonna flip when you hear who it is though-"

"I don't need to know. Listen, I think we need to shut down and call it good. At least temporarily. I need some time to….myself."

The other end went silent, and Sakura wondered if he had hung up on her momentarily.

"Just hear me out on this, it's a big case. Consider it as going out with a bang or something."

Sakura sighed. "I can't do this right now, I have a date later and then we can talk. Okay?" 

"Fine, but I will only wait so long Sakura!"

X

"Hey, Sakura? You there?" Sakura blinked and sat up. "I'm sorry Kenji, I spaced out a little."

The Stuffed Olive was a beautiful Italian restaurant in downtown Konoha. Kenji knew Sakura like Italian food, and since they hadn't seen each other within a week he felt the need to treat her. Kenji only had a couple pieces of risotto on his plate, while Sakura was still fiddling with some linguini noodles in her chicken Alfredo. He was animated and delightful. Proper and charming. To most women he was the perfect catch. An Ivy League man with a bright and pampered future ahead of him.

Sakura wasn't most women.

When they had first started dating a few months ago, she had felt that Kenji was the gentleman that she was looking for. He paid for their meals, even though she offered to pay, held the door open for her, and respected her privacy. Upon further inspection however she found herself bored and lacking interest in the relationship. All the man talked about was being a big shot lawyer and following in his father's footsteps. He was always trying to get her to come over and spend time in his family's summer home and talk to his mother about future plans. Things were going much too fast, and she wasn't sure that the attraction was as strong as it used to be. He had sharp looks, with combed blonde hair and sparkling chocolate eyes, but there was a smugness about him that she didn't like. He expected her to fall all over him, and when she didn't he would pout for a little before talking about how much money his family had. She didn't man who chased after validation of his importance to other people.

"My mother was asking about you again. She said it's been far too long since she's last seen you. You could join me by going up to the summer home this weekend, eh?"

Ah, there it was again.

"I'll have to check my schedule on that. Cases have been piling up on me lately." She fibbed.

Kenji's smile faltered, but he continued a cheery charade. Sakura knew that Kenji wasn't too keen on her late night activities, but he thought it was so cute how feisty she got when they talked about it so he let it slide. This was another thing that bugged her; his blatant disregard for the things that were important to her. She knew that she was currently contemplating ending it, but it wasn't his job to decide what she did.

"Actually, Kenji? I'm sorry, but I don't think this is working out between us."

Well, she hadn't expected to do that. But now it was out there and she couldn't take it back. She had been thinking about it for a while, his personality had smushed her attraction to him. She had thought giving it more time would make it better, but she realized that he wasn't going to change. At least, not with her anyways.

It seemed as though she had caught Kenji completely off guard as his face fell into shock and he dropped his fork which clattered onto his plate. He cleared his throat and composed himself as he was a man all about appearances. Making a scene would do him no good.

"Sakura, honey, why would you wanna break up?"

' _Because you're a pompous daddy's boy? Because your boring and make fun of 'trivial' things I do?'_ She thought, but didn't voice them. She didn't want to hurt his feelings more than she needed to. "I just don't feel a connection. I'm sorry." His stare on her was hard, and she couldn't tell if he was going to yell at her or just walk out. He surprised her by laughing. "You know, I liked that you were different than the other girls I've dated and definitely interesting. I took that wall you hold up as a challenge, but I should've known better than to mess with _damaged_ goods."

His last words sent a surge of emotions through her and before she knew it she was walking home in the overcast weather. Kenji had probably only said those things because he was upset, but that didn't make it hurt any less. He was lucky she didn't take a swing at him for saying such things, but she restrained herself because they had been in a public setting. It wasn't the first time she had gotten a response like that, and it probably wasn't the last. Yes, her parents dying had affected her, but she wasn't cold and she gave plenty of men chances to be included in her life. She had a heart and she followed whatever it told her. She just hadn't met a man that she truly wanted and she wasn't going to settle. _'Sakura Haruno is an independent woman who don't need no man!'_ her mind chimed.

Thunder roared to life in the sky. She looked up to the darkening clouds and cursed; her jacket didn't have a hood on it. Looks like she'd have to take a cab after all. She managed to waive a cab down before the rain came down, which was lucky for her because it began to pour as soon as she stepped in. The cab traveled another 7 minutes before pulling in front of the apartment building that she and Ino lived in. She dug into her small pink purse and pulled out the needed bills to pay the cab driver. She darted from the cab door into the apartment entrance but still managed to get drenched due to her light attire.

The elevator was broken, causing Sakura to promptly yank off her shoes and climb 8 flights of stairs. This was turning out to be a terrible day for her, Ino should've let her just sleep through it! She fumbled with the keys when she got to her door, and then slammed the front door with more force than necessary when she got in. Ino was off visiting her parents at the time, so her plan was to take a hot shower and wallow in front of the TV. But she didn't even make it 2 strides before there was a loud and insistent knocking at her front door. "For the love of-ugh!" Sakura marched back to the door, still soaking wet and _not_ in her pajamas to rip the door open. "What the fuck do you want?" Sakura shouted. She then saw that it was Thomas, dripping wet and panting, at the front of her door. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger in frustration. "Thomas, I told you that I would _call_ you later." She said calmly, stepping aside to let him in.

"I couldn't wait that long, this is important!" She sighed. Really, bad luck followed her everywhere. "Fine, let me go grab some dry clothes for both of us and then we can talk about it."

X

"I can't take you seriously in those clothes." She giggled. Thomas glared at her in return; it was her clothes he was wearing after all.

Sakura and Thomas currently sat adjacent to each other with Sakura lounging in the arm chair and Thomas on the couch. He had spread out several papers he had miraculously kept dry in front of him on a black coffee table. Both of them were now comfy in dry clothes with a cup of hot cocoa at their disposal. It wouldn't be right to take any of Ino's clothes for Thomas, and the only clothes Sakura had that was big enough to fit Thomas were a pair of her pajamas.

A pair of fleece pajamas with purple kitties on them. Sakura was wearing similar pajamas that had a stripped pink green yellow pattern on them.

"Shut up and focus." He replied. "I know you said you're thinking of quitting, and I totally get it. I do. But I think this is something you're going to want to look at before you decide anything. It's the curse on Uchiha Manor."

X

Well, this has officially been revised! Let me know how you like the new version. I feel like it leads into the story better.

Hannya- a Japanese mask used in old theater to represent a demon or a dragon. This will be important in later chapters, so pay attention.

Please R&R, it's been a while since I've written anything so I might be a little rusty. I'm good with criticism, but no flames please.


	2. The Client

**Hello again~ I appreciate those who reviewed! I'm sorry, but it does take a little build up for good stories and I'm trying to make it the best I can, so bear with me please:3**

 **A lot more information is laid out in this chapter, and I also show a preview at the end of Sasuke and Sakura's first meeting ;) Originally more was included in this chapter, but it was getting too long so I had to split the chapters up.**

 **XX**

"Well, it doesn't look dark and dreary. It doesn't even look like the picture." Sakura declared. She stood next to Thomas with her burgundy bag slung over her shoulder. They peered up from the bottom of large white steps in front of a beautiful craftsman-style mansion. It had a wide white-stained porch and primp rose bushes that were perfectly clipped surrounding the house. Romanesque cream beams that looked strong enough to hold up the whole structure supported the porch. The grass seemed impossibly green and the roundabout driveway was long and immaculate as it curved up to the house. It seemed open, peaceful, and hardly haunted to Sakura. Perhaps they had the wrong address. She had been so cranky for getting up early on the weekend that she might've mixed up the numbers for the house address on the GPS.

"This isn't the Manor." Thomas clarified. "She said that nobody's ever been able to live in the manor for decades. The property was passed down to her but there's so much activity in the house that nobody can seem to make it a day in there before they're scared shitless."

Most hauntings were bearable to a point, even those that had more activity. They were scary but families couldn't afford to be driven out of their homes so easily. They lasted a couple months to around 2 weeks usually, some even braved it for years. But a day? What could possibly be going on in that house? Sakura should've had warning bells going off in her mind. But her curiosity was reigning over any fear that she should've felt. She was always up for a challenge.

She had to be careful though. Curiosity could be blinding, and a small voice in the back of her mind was trying to remind her that with excitement came unbridled danger. Something she should know very well by now.

"Has anyone else besides an Uchiha tried to live in the house before?"

"The manor is like a landmark to the Uchiha; it was created to be the residence for the heir and main family. They would never allow anyone from a different lineage to live there."

"They're that traditional huh?"

"Apparently. Now, let's go meet the nice lady, shall we?"

She was actually excited to meet this lady who held all the secrets to this 'Uchiha curse' that she had been hearing about since she was twelve. She was going to be the first outsider to enter the haunted halls of Uchiha manor, and find the truth. She reveled in solving such a coveted mystery herself; which is exactly what Thomas had been counting on.

 _XFlashback to last nightX_

Sakura rose a green mug of hot cocoa to her lips, carefully lifting it by the handle while shuffling through some of the papers on the table Thomas had spread out. She had her legs crossed indian-style comfily on the armchair. The television in the room had been turned on, but only to fade as white noise in the background so they didn't have to listen to the downpour of rain outside. Sakura was preoccupied on reading through the information that Thomas had already gathered on the 'Uchiha curse'. Most of it she already knew about from typical scary tales. Everyone knew about Uchiha Manor. It had been the subject of campfire horror stories and sleepover scares as she was growing up.

Hundreds of investigators were dying to test it out, but the Manor was in a remote location that only the Uchiha knew about. Perfect for tweens to hide behind trees and scare their peers with pretend ghosts of the forest as they were camping. She had only heard a little bit of what had actually happened to the Uchiha family back then, they called it a plague from the early 1900s that almost wiped out the whole clan.

It was believed that something had set a curse on them, whether it was a maid that dabbled in voodoo or a scorned mistress that made a deal with the devil. Everybody just believed they had contracted a nasty virus. Or that the devil called upon them and their bloodline turned black (hence the dark features like black hair and eyes), ultimately damning their souls to prey on the living (highly doubtful). But tall tales always exaggerated stories. Sakura guessed it was poison from the scorned mistress, and they died so suddenly that their souls became trapped in the house if it really was haunted. But that's why she was here; to put the stories to rest and find out the truth.

' _What happened to hanging the ghost hunting jacket up?'_ She chastised herself. All day her thoughts had been surrounded at working out a more normal life for her. Leave the past the way a woman should. She could work full-time at the hospital, find a decent guy to move out with, be married and start a family in less than 5 years. That was what she wanted? Right? Or maybe it was what she felt she needed; living an estranged life was impeding on her place in society. Not that she had much of one anyways. Soon enough she would turn into a hermit that only hangs around empty houses listening for disembodied voices. Or maybe she would suffer the same fate her parents had and not live long enough to reach that point.

 _No._ She needed to quit. She needed to live the life her parents wanted her to have.

But it all seemed so boring. She internally frowned at the turmoil this was bringing her. Curse Thomas for dragging these Uchihas into her life, she had been so determined to call it quits earlier! Going into one of the most haunted places such as this was what Sakura had been waiting for.

"Who is this?" Sakura asked. She held up a small square paper to show him. It was a current picture of a woman who looked to be in her mid-40s with long black hair and matching eyes. She wore a dark blue dress and a necklace with a symbol she knew to be the Uchiha emblem. She graced a small smile and slightly creased eyes. She seemed to be pleasant enough. Thomas leaned over and looked at the picture before replying, "Oh, that's the client. She's like the granddaughter of the main family or something. Said that she wants to clear up the bad energy in the house."

"A hundred year old bad energy huh? Sounds…"

"Interesting? Intense? Scary beyond all reason?" Thomas guessed.

"Challenging." Sakura finished.

Thomas smirked. "But that's how you like it though, right?" She glared at him, but they both knew he was right. Sakura was never one to shirk away from adventure; it was like she had a magnetic pull towards the undiscovered. Or maybe it seemed to be the other way around for her. Strange situations had been weaseling into her adult life for so long she'd grown a weird but welcome bond with it. She sighed. There it was. She could feel it. She was going to give in. Only this last time though. This would be her last case. Ever.

"Alright, you win for now. When do we meet her?"

"Pack your stuff, we gotta be in Virginia by tomorrow evening."

"Ugh. You never give me time to plan ahead."

 _XBack to the PresentX_

They walked up a few flights of stairs and up to the decorated carved-wood double doors. Sakura raised her hand to test of the rustic door knocker, but the door opened before she could use it. There stood a pale man with inky hair in a full pressed suit. He greeted them, but his unnatural smile and monotone voice seemed off to her. It was an unnatural niceness, the way he looked at them, as if he wasn't _used_ to smiling.

' _Why are the butlers always strange?'_ She wondered. It wasn't just his disposition that was eccentric. He was incredibly pale as if he'd never seen the sun. His murky bangs fell neatly into his eyes, which seemed to look past her as if avoiding true eye contact. He was close to ranking number 1 on her shady characters list.

Thomas' grandma still held the trophy. That old lady was something else.

"The misses is this way, in the drawing room." He said flatly. Sakura and Thomas followed the angular man who, upon closer inspection, didn't seem to be any older than them through the elaborate mansion. Thomas leaned over to whisper to Sakura, "I didn't even know 'drawing room' was a thing anymore." The tips of Sakura's lips twitched upwards. She whispered back teasingly, "That's because you're not a billionaire that can afford rooms with fancy names."

They were led down a large hallway and into a room with a couple desks and hundreds of books littering the walls. The room had wood flooring with a large royal blue rug that contained an arabesque pattern on it with tassels at the ends. Surprisingly, it wasn't explicitly lavish and was of moderate size. In the midst of the room sat the client, the woman who had looked so delicate in her picture. She sat in a fauteuil, a sophisticated chair that had carved patterns in the arms with dull blue satin cushions. It seemed perfect for her, with her legs crossed and her arms folded in her lap. She wore her long midnight hair down, with a red cardigan with a black sheath dress and simple black heels.

She got up quickly to greet them. Sakura felt slightly out of place in her dark blue jeans and mint green zip up jacket. It was like she was underdressed for a job interview, except they were the ones that would be asking questions. At least she wasn't the only one though. Thomas' jeans were worn out and he wore an old band t-shirt from a local band from his hometown in Indiana. She came up to them as if they were already friends, extending a cordial hand and shaking Sakura's excitedly. "Well hello," she greeted in a soft voice, "I'm Mikoto. I'm so glad you came. Please! Sit down and make yourselves comfortable." She held out her hand to guide her guests to a canape that matched her own chair. They sat across from each other, and the client went back to crossing her legs and smiling at them.

She hadn't seen the clients name on the picture, but then why did Mikoto sound so familiar?

It clicked a few seconds later.

"Mikoto? You're named after one of them?" Sakura blatantly asked. _'Way to be rude. Does rich people make you so nervous that you forget your manners?'_ Her inner berated.

She slightly flushed. "Yes, I know. Some people think it might be in bad taste to be named after the deceased. But it is also a way of honoring my family members. I myself did the same thing with my son."

Oh, how insensitive of Sakura to bring it up! When she had heard the name she had only thought of the sick mother who had died from this 'curse'. She thought it was strange that someone would name their child after someone who had suffered a traumatic experience, but it also might be a traditional name passed down in the family. Either way, it wasn't Sakura's business.

The butler came to her side to stand next to her chair and handed her a glass of water. She thanked him before introducing him to Sakura and Thomas. "This is Sai, my right hand man. Would either of you like any refreshments? I think it's important for you to be completely at ease." Both declined the offer politely and Sai left the room and closed the door behind him; most likely to fulfill other duties in the house. "I apologize if Sai seems somewhat off-putting, even after all this time he is still learning the customs here."

' _More like learning how to be a normal human being if you ask me.'_ Sakura thought, but she had already said too many rude things to this polite woman in front of her. It was a good thing that Mikoto seemed to be a laid back women, otherwise she was sure she would be on the Uchiha bad shit list. Which wasn't something to be taken lightly for how powerful a family they were.

Sakura had done plenty of reading up on the Uchihas as well as the Uchiha Corp. last night. A very popular tech company that dominated the industry. A majority of hardware found on the shelves of stores had the Uchiha insignia. The company also had a hand in the weapon's industry, which she found odd. Weapons and computers usually didn't go together very well, but big companies were known for having their hands in everything. It made Sakura wonder if this polite woman was capable of making cut throat decisions and dealing with harsh businessmen.

She started, "first let me thank you for coming all the way here. I'll give you any gas money that it took to drive here."

Thomas went to tell her how much it took with the long hours of driving, but Sakura stopped him short. He was so finicky when it came to money. "No need for that, were here to help." Sakura smiled at the woman, who simply reflected one back. Sakura elbowed Thomas as a reminder to use his manners. He coughed from the force of the blow but complied.

"I guess I should begin, since I've called you here and everything." She lifts a small hand to take a sip of her water slowly as if contemplating how to explain. Her eyes don't quite meet theirs as she sets her glass down. "As you might have heard, the Uchiha manor has been having some strange activity for over a hundred years or so. We've had others look into it, but none that can…handle it. Or be trusted. My son told me about you from an article he read. It says you're the best at this kind of stuff, communicating and figuring out what happened to them."

She hadn't known that there was an article written about her exploits; it struck her as odd. Paranormal activities usually didn't get much attention except for the usual crazy magazines that had headlines like 'I married an octopus from outer space'. She didn't think people like the Uchiha read that stuff though.

XX

"Even the most dreadful things are created with good intentions." Mikoto began, a sad smile breaking out on her face as if she knew it all too well. The look in her eyes and the way she started ringing her hands uncomfortably made Sakura feel like this was something Mikoto wished she did not have to share. It must have been dire to understand if she was going to reveal it with them regardless of her own feelings. Sakura stayed silent and waited patiently for her to go on.

"You understand that the world started off trying to find peace. Karate was made to find peace. To find a way to make sense of the universe and what it wants. But, you see, people come up with different solutions. Different ideologies. That causes misconceptions, and misconceptions cause fighting and wars."

Mikoto stopped herself again, looking down at the ground as if hesitant to continue. But when she looked up again there was resolve in her eyes. "The Uchiha clan was a clan of highly skilled shinobi. A powerful clan that protected the women and children from other harmful clans at first. They too, had good intention at the time. Years past, decades even, and this was simply the way things worked. Alliances were made, villages were built, and the Uchiha's were at the cusp of it all. The main alliance created the Gokudo. As I said, so many things started with good intentions. A man named Madara Uchiha grew to be the leader over our clan and the allies. He was meant to protect the people…but he had grown for a hunger of power and fear. The Uchiha's had been on top for too long and Madara was beginning to believe that the Uchiha's were superior to comrades and enemies alike. He possessed a superiority complex. Soon, he was killing more people than he was saving. Then…he met Hashirama. Leader of the Senju clan."

A soft knock came at the door, and Mikoto suddenly stopped as if afraid of prying ears in their conversation. It made Sakura wonder. How much was she telling them that she wasn't supposed to? That the world outside this room didn't know about?

Sakura felt anxious and like she was intruding in this woman's history.

Sai opened the door to tell her that a relative called. Mikoto excused it swiftly as Sai soundlessly closed the door again. Sakura leaned forward and decided to intervene.

"Not to sound rude, but you don't have to go into so much detail, especially if it's private." Sakura said, trying to level with the woman in front of her. A family past like that was not something a person would want to relive in front of a couple of strangers. If the press got their hands on this, it could be detrimental to anyone with the last name Uchiha. Hell, any involvement with the Gokudo could completely demolish the Uchiha's reputation. But Mikoto smiled almost painfully at her before replying "Your kind, but it's needed for you to understand."

Sakura was somehow hoping for a happy ending, but she knew where this would end up connecting with the plague in 1905.

"Hashirama wanted to return to the ideals of peace. The friendship between them almost changed Madara. Almost. But when Hashirama became elected leader of the village because of Madara's underhanded controlling of the Gokudo he went mad, and challenged his best friend…"

Sakura couldn't help but slip a sneak peek at Thomas to see his reaction to such a destructive secret. From what she could see, his hands were tightly folded and his mouth slightly agape in disbelief. He looked as though he was holding on to every word at this point.

She was too.

"My grandfather was…unclear…about what happened. But Madara was banished. Before he left, he stroke a deal with the Gokudo to where the Uchiha clan could be free of them. They came were everyone was going for a new start, here, and Madara had seemed to change for the better. He started an iron company that quickly blew up into what it is today. He had the manor designed, always, for the main branch and heir to the Uchiha's to reside in. He was still a prideful man of his lineage."

"So, what happened?" Thomas couldn't help but ask.

"Well, that's also unclear. Some believe that Madara couldn't handle it and just disappeared. Went back to the Gokudo. Or that he got sick, it was a difficult time for hospitals, and he died there." It sounded like she was reading from an article that clearly sounded made up to her.

"What do you believe happened to him?"

Mikoto looked at Sakura, and almost smirked, but she didn't think Mikoto was capable of such an expression with how sweet she was.

"My grandfather told me that Madara found his way back into the darkness. He started a new path to power that he couldn't control. There was a disagreement in the family and Madara grew angry that his own clan turned their back on him after he had risked breaking their ties with the Gokudo."

"Are you saying that other Uchiha might've killed him?"

"I don't know. My grandfather didn't know either. So many Uchiha feared him that it's hard to believe."

"And who is your grandfather? How does he know all this?"

Ah, there it was. The flicker of fear in her eyes. This was what she was the most apprehensive about. Her connection to the whole thing.

She answered, her voice getting softer, "Originally, my grandfather was Itachi Uchiha. One of the victims in the manor."

Sakura felt as though this rang a lot of significance in what they would be doing. Could he be the one stuck roaming the halls? He was the only one left with a living connection, Mikoto.

"In the wake of his death, my grandmother turned to his best friend, Shisui. No one else at the time knew that she was pregnant because they weren't married yet. He became my Ojichan. He and Itachi shared everything. Itachi gave him the perspective of what was really going on with the secrets of the main family."

"Secrets?" She really shouldn't be asking so many questions on such a fragile topic.

"The say a plague fell over the household, but what's strange is that it doesn't match up with any time of an epidemic and never spread to any other households besides the Uchiha. All of the main family died in the same night, but the youngest survived."

This piqued her interest. She hadn't read about any survivors.

Mikoto scooted to the edge of her seat carefully. "It changed him. He lived in the house alone for only a couple more years before Ojichan said he too disappeared. Ojichan liked to check up on him because they were close cousins thanks to Itachi, but he quickly shunned everyone and locked himself away like Madara had. It was believed that he took his own life." Sakura gasped. Such heartbreak in a lonely man, for grief to drive him to such a thing. At such a young age too, he was only 3 years older than her at that time.

"There is a curse that Madara created that was unleashed by someone. I don't know who." Mikoto stated seriously. She lifted the sleeve of her cardigan, perhaps out of nerves. "And I believe it's happening again." Then Sakura saw it.

It looked as though it was a faded purple burn scar traveling up her arm. The skin around it had puckered, and it was shiny from ointment being rubbed on the surface. Mikoto pulled her sleeve down again, but her eyes never wavered from them. "I don't know what's going on, but I need your help."

Sakura felt over her head in this situation. She was only used to talking to dead people. Never before did she have to actually solve a _murder_. Or prevent more people from dying!

"Are you sure it's not a disease passed down genetically?" Sakura shuffled awkwardly in her seat as she spoke, "I don't think this is a job for us, it sounds like actual investigators and doctors should be involved."

Mikoto shook her head. "It's all been done. Nothing works. The Uchiha elders on the council in the company have also started dying inconspicuously. This is the exact same symptoms that happened when the plague occurred. Any family member that have visited the house are now at risk. Which is a lot. A few years back we tried to hold a party there during the day to try and brighten the mood and it ended badly. I need to know what's happening, what happened. And maybe we can figure this out."

"I..I just get ghosts to talk. I'm a messenger. I can't _fix_ anything." This lady was asking for more than a Hermes, she was asking for a freakin shaman. To somehow connect the dead with the living.

"That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking you to reclaim peace in the Uchiha household. _Please_."

A few seconds ticked by, but it felt like an hour. Sakura was apprehensive now after hearing the real story, but how could she turn away from this woman in need? Even if this was above anything in her power, she needed to do what she could to help this family.

"…okay…we'll help you."

Mikoto surprised Sakura by running up and hugging her. Everything had been so serious that Sakura didn't expect the quick movements. She awkwardly wrapped her arms around the other woman in an attempt to offer comfort from her seated position. The older woman was practically kneeling in front of her so she could tightly hug her. At the faint contact of Sakura's hands on her back it seemed like Mikoto realized her sudden outburst, and straightened herself and pulled down her dress to smooth out any wrinkles. With a slight blush on her cheeks, she was embarrassed at acting so frankly, she returned to her seat.

Sakura usually had everything lined up with the questions she asked and steps she went through in order to get the information so she could start right away. She wasn't able to do that this time; Mikoto had laid it all out on the table before she got the chance. This case was so different from what she had dealt with in this past, she wasn't sure on how to go about it. She needed to plan this all out accordingly.

"So you're the one who currently owns the house? That way we can freely pass with your permission."

"Oh I gave the deed to my son, he's taken over everything already. He currently is CEO of the company, so now everything belongs to him. But I do have a key to give you." She dug into her pocket and pulled out an old silver key. Thomas went ahead and got up to retrieve it from her.

"Thank you, and we shouldn't have any problems with running into any other people will we?"

"My son told me he likes to keep the place spruced up and clean without changing any of it out of respect to our ancestors. But I don't think he's hired anyone for routine maintenance."

Sakura nodded. "Good to know. We'll update you if we have any questions or find anything."

XX

Even though Sai came to get them and walk them out, Mikoto went with them to be a courteous host. In passing she could see the Uchiha emblem on all the curtains in the house. She wondered what it stood for. "It's an Uchiwa fan." Mikoto replied, her hand unconsciously rising to her necklace. "Why a fan?" Thomas asked.

"Because a fan only makes the fire burn brighter." It sounded more like a recital then an answer.

Thomas and Sakura pulled into a coffee shop a city halfway home to get some refreshments in their bodies and fully absorb their situation. Thomas ordered them 2 lattes and sat down on an art nouveau couch that Sakura had found in a comfy corner of the place. She was pulling out a folder she had designated for the Uchiha and spreading out papers on the table so they could work while drinking. Thomas looked over, some of them were printed out papers of really old pictures. She took the old pictures and lined them all next to each other. She pointed out each one as she read their names out.

"Mikoto Uchiha, Fugaku Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, and the survivor, Sasuke Uchiha."

They were a little faded, and it didn't help that she could only print them off an archives sight on the internet. She could see the similarities in them that all Uchiha had. Dark hair, dark eyes, and aristocratic features. But beyond that they didn't seem out of the ordinary at all.

The mother was the only one smiling in her picture; the father looked as though he had permanent creases from frowning. The 2 sons were a different story. She couldn't read too much into them, but both seemed very indifferent and aloof. The older one, Itachi, had long hair pulled into a ponytail with bangs framing his face. He had scars as well, underneath each of his eyes. The younger one had bangs framing his face, but the back of his hair stuck up in spikes behind him. She couldn't get a good look at any of the actual features of their faces though, and back then pictures weren't a common thing. It would be impossible to find anything clear.

"So, from all the info I gathered and from what she said, Mikoto, Fugaku, and Itachi all died the same night in," she double checks the date of death she found, "October." She singled out Sasuke's picture. "Sasuke didn't disappear until around 3 years later. He was born in 1882 so he would've been around 26 at the time he disappeared. But, there were a couple of missing things in the situation."

Thomas and Sakura hears the barista call their order, and Thomas gets up to grab their treats. Sakura is still trying to grasp the story when he plops her latte down in front of her. She goes to take a swing, but quickly retracts herself from the hot liquid. Sometimes she gets too absorbed in her work that she forgets the world around her. He peers over at all the extra paperwork and history that Sakura has looked up. Sakura always went over the top, she liked to be prepared, and so Thomas usually opted to follow along with it. But sometimes he didn't like knowing all the skeletons in someone's closet.

"No death certificates, no cause of death, newspapers don't even go into detail besides coming up with the title 'Uchiha Plague Kills Family'. Death completely shrouded in mystery. And the survivor locked himself away and never told anyone what happened. We have 4 possible candidates or a combination of any of them that could be stuck with unfinished business."

"This _is_ going to be difficult." Thomas chides. He doesn't know if he wants to spend all his free time off work walking around in dark places. He does like the money though, so he knows that he'll suck it up. At least until it drives him mad.

Sakura simply smirks at him and takes another sip of her latte. "Just the way I like it, right?"

XX

"Sakura, if you don't stop that your gonna eat your fork."

"Huh? What?" Sakura turned her attention away from the laptop screen to acknowledge Ino. She had been so engrossed in trying to find any more information on the Uchiha's that she wasn't even eating her sesame chicken anymore; she was just chewing on the fork. Ino giggled and plopped down on the couch next to her with her own plate of takeout in her hand. Sakura set her fork down on her half eaten plate and went to scrolling through the internet again. Ino, being the nosy friend she was, casually peeked over Sakura's shoulder as she chewed her low mein. She could see business charts for something called 'Uchiha Corporation'. Ino raised one eyebrow and gave her friend a confused look, catching Sakura's attention.

"What?"

"Since when are you interested in business?"

"I'm not," Sakura closed the tab and went back to google. "I'm trying to gather Information on the Uchihas. Get a feel for what they're most like. Looking for any possible underhanded dealings or jealous competitors that could harm them."

"Oh yeah?" Ino replied, mouth full of noodles. Sakura had been spending her free time look up anything Uchiha related for the last week. "You don't believe in this curse?"

"I'm not saying that. But I like to check all of my liable options first. There is a chance that someone poisoned the family then. They were rich from their successful company and that always pisses competitors off. They were also part of an, uh, group before coming here. It's possible this group could be responsible for the weird illnesses then and now."

"Oooookay then. I think I'll just go back to watching TV." Ino knew better to question Sakura's methods. She was serious about helping people in any way that she could.

"Yeah, you do that." Sakura exclaimed without her eyes moving from the screen as if she was afraid she'd miss something if turned away. Ino pouted, she didn't like being ignored. Sakura was still clicking away at her laptop, currently looking for the CEO so she could possibly get a meeting with the guy. But it looked as though the title was still under Mikoto Uchiha, so that was a bust.

"Well, damn." Sakura mumbled. Looks like she had hit a wall on the research for now. She couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Ino heard her distress and was happy to gain some attention again.

"Anything that I can help you with?"

"Not unless you know who the CEO of the Uchiha's company is."

"Oh!" Ino's eyes brightened, "I do!"

Sakura tore her eyes away from the screen and excitedly said, "Really? Who is it?!"

"Well, I don't know his name. But I've seen him on TV and some magazines a while ago. And he's completely gorgeous. Ugh, yum."

Sakura deadpanned, "Well, do you have any of these magazines?"

"Not anymore. I'm all about recycling."

"So, what you're saying is that your no help at all?"

"Oops."

"Ugh!" Sakura shut her laptop and scooted it out of her lap. She sunk into the couch as she felt like she needed to take the chance to relax after spending her Friday obsessing over her new case. Maybe she could just ask Mikoto for some contacts? Yeah, no need to stress out. She always got it figured out anyways. She returned to her half eaten plate and joined Ino in watching TV and some light conversation.

"So when do you actually start with the whole finding ghosts thing?"

"In 2 days, we'll lug all of the equipment out to the sight that Mikoto gave us coordinates to and set everything up the first day. Then that night we'll have to test the equipment out and see if it works. How I see it is we have a couple of days to get everything ready, but the actual case could take a while."

"Well who knows then, you might run into this handsome CEO and he'll be so grateful to you for helping out he'll sweep you off your feet and marry you."

"Ino, don't you ever think of anything besides boys?"

"Hmmm," Ino tapped her chin with her forefinger pretending to really contemplate it. "Nope!" She said with a smile. Sakura laughed at her. Ino was such a typical girl.

"Hey, maybe I'll join ya and marry the guy myself then. You already have Kenji anyways!"

"Oh yeah…" She had completely forgotten to tell Ino she broke up with him.

"Sakura, tell me you didn't!"

"Oh, I most definitely did." Ino smacked her palm to her forehead. What was she gonna do with Sakura when she kept breaking up with the perfect men?

"Geez woman, how am I supposed to get rid of you so I can have crazy sex on the couch with strangers if you don't have your own guy to fool around with?" Sakura stopped eating and looked down to scrutinize the cushions. She couldn't see any visible stains…

"…You really have sex on this thing?"

"You better fucking believe it."

"…but this is my couch."

"I put the blanket down when I remember to."

"…I think I need to wash my clothes now."

"If it makes you feel better, it's pretty awesome. You should try it some time."

Sakura got up as quickly as she could to avoid feeling dirty and hurried off to the kitchen to clean her plate. "Scratch that," she called from the kitchen, "I'll have to burn them."

XX

Preview for the next chapter:

 _He was very obviously related to Mikoto, with his midnight hair and charcoal eyes. He had a chiseled jaw, a sculpted nose, and a perfect mouth. The type of mouth that wasn't too thin, like most men's, but a little more fuller with a beautiful curve. All his aristocratic characteristics screamed 'Uchiha' to her, but there was something different as well. The hint of Sapphire that shined in his hair or the look in his eyes made him unique from the rest. The Uchiha's were a whole clan of good-looking attractive people. But this man, this man was stunning._

 _It was then that Sakura did something completely uncharacteristic of herself (gawking was already a seldom thing for her with all she'd seen)._

 _In her attempt to get a little closer to peer past the trees, she tripped on a protruding root and fell. Hard. Making a muffled "Ompf!" noise on her way down, her hands flailing to grab on to the tree next to her to catch herself. She couldn't reach the tree, and she barely had time to catch herself before her forehead almost smacked the ground. She cursed, as she had probably given her position away to a man she had been so openly staring at. And then, she did smack her forehead on the ground out of pure frustration at risking looking so stupid in front of this magnificent man._

" _Ahem." She froze when she heard a deep clearing of the throat. Right. Next. To . her. Head._

 _Her head snapped up to see a pair of muddy shoes at the tip of her nose. How had he gotten over here so fast? She leaned up on her elbows to where she could see him stooping over her with an unreadable expression on his face._

XX

 **Mikoto asking for help of a murder? Interesting indeed, especially when she's a descendant of the original (somewhat confusing but that's okay) Mikoto as well as Itachi. I wonder who this famous CEO son could be. I wasn't gonna add the whole, 'oh I'm starting to get this illness from the curse!' thing, but I felt as though a stronger motive than it being haunted was needed. Like an urgency as to why she finally needs this dealt with. Please review and tell me what you think!**

 **A couple notes, in case they are needed:**

 **A fauteuil is an open-arm chair with a wooden fame. Francey and fancy.**

 **A canape is similar to a couch, but more so an elegant sofa made out of elaborately carved wood with wooden legs, upholstered seats, back, and armrests that seats three usually. This is also a French piece of furniture.**

 **Arabesque- elaborate ornamental design of intertwined curvilinear geometric motifs.**


	3. The Son

**Hello again! Yes, I know. I'm actually sticking to updating this thing. This story has completely filled my mind. So I hope my readers enjoy it as much as I do! We do have Sasuke finally entering the scene in this chapter, and of course is as ambiguous as can be and totally hot. He throws Sakura threw a loop, because she doesn't normally faun over men but he's definitely got a spell on her. Sakura's been on the serious side so far, but her nervous interactions with Sasuke make her just a little more goofy and lovable. Let me know what you think~**

XXX

First Stage: check out the creepy haunted house on the hill.

Sakura wasn't kidding; this manor followed the cliché 'haunted house on a menacing hill in the middle of nowhere'. It reminded her of watching the dark arrival to the House of Usher. They were driving in Thomas' car, following the drawn out directions they had been given. Thomas had almost missed the turnoff because there was no road. Thomas had slammed on the breaks when Sakura had yelled stop in a heavily forested area in the middle of nowhere on highway 23. After deciding that it couldn't be a mistake in the instructions, they had gotten out and found out why. It wasn't a road at all, but a dirt trail that was hidden from the highway by a line of fir trees. After much directing, Thomas had managed to maneuver his car onto the trail, and they continued up the spiraling trail into the deep hills.

After a couple turns, Sakura could see the large mansion ahead of them surrounded by a cast iron fence. As the car trucked closer, Sakura noticed that the overcast clouds became darker the higher they climbed. The forecast hadn't even called for a chance of rain.

Perfectly sinister.

Luckily the large gate was unlocked. As they approached the house it seemed well-kept; there was no chipping paint, rusted fence, or overgrown greenery like she expected. Mikoto had said that her son liked to keep the house clean without damaging or replacing any of the old furniture or material, but she wondered why he would bother to spend so much effort if the place was unlivable. Why go to such lengths for an unlivable house? It seemed that Mikoto had extended her hope to reclaim the place to other family members. It was a symbol of their renewed history after all; a clean slate from a frightful past.

Thomas pulled up in his white Chevy Impala and pulled in on the side of the road since there was no garage (automobiles weren't a thing at the time). She was slightly mesmerized by the antiquity and beauty she saw before her. Very few houses kept their natural beauty like this one. It remained untouched from mold, rowdy teenagers that break shit, or druggies looking for a place to shoot up at. The house remained a faded white with royal blue linings and shutters. The windows from the outside were clean and impossibly dark. The deck was reprieve from any broken boards and was a beautiful cherry wood polish. She couldn't wait to see what the interior would look like.

Sakura got out and helped Thomas grab some equipment from the back seat. They needed to set up perimeter sensors around the yard first, to make sure no one was tampering with the house while they were there. Thomas charged himself with the front yard, which was so like him, so Sakura had to truck to the backyard with some heavy perimeter rods.

XXX

The backyard was a beautiful garden that was vivid and full of life surprisingly. Hedge bushes outlined a stone patio that had a giant fountain in the middle of it along with some remaining garden furniture scattered about. The fountain held a statue of a ceramic woman sitting with her hands folded over heart in a flowing dress. Her face almost seemed sorrowful, but maybe it was years of water running over her face. The water however wasn't running anymore and the fountain was empty, but she could see the wear and water damage that had aged it.

Beyond the patio and the black gate she had come through was a spectacular garden littered with so many flowers she couldn't name them all. A majority of them held cool colors such as blue and purple. She had to swerve around a lot of protruding flowers to stay out on the outside of the garden, but putting up the sensor rods didn't seem as cumbersome a task when admiring such a gorgeous place. If she was just a bystander, she would never imagine something so pristine could have such mysterious and dark horrors. But she wasn't, and she could see the uncharacteristic shadows she didn't see before in the windows. Everything was still looked as though it was all new, but she didn't get that feeling it all. At the same time there was still something old dwelling everywhere she looked.

It was like she had stepped out of time.

It was like this curse had frozen the house, tainting its wall with memories of dread. The garden was beautiful, yes, but there was an absence of joy. No matter how well kept, it wasn't a 'happy' beauty it held. It was a cover up, a demand that said 'something happened here but you're not allowed to know'. It was almost like the house had a stain that couldn't be washed out even with the toughest detergent. The house held secrets, which is maybe why as she stood here admiring it that she held such an appreciation for it. A house with a soul.

A twisted humor, she chastised herself, to use such a play on words.

She still felt oddly at peace, because whoever had made the garden was very successful at hiding any feeling of morbidity. It was a very calming place to be and she didn't mind looking around the garden. It was a pleasant view while strategically placing the rods in a 10 meter radius around the house and turning them on. She was tempted to pick some flowers, but she was afraid that if she tampered with even one she would cause a tear in the time frame and the beauty of the past would disappear. Like an intruder taking something that wouldn't belong to her.

The trees provided a cool place to be under the heat of the day, as Sakura had dressed in tan shorts and a green tank top for preparation. She had forgotten a hair-tie though so she had to wear her long soft-hued hair down, tumbling past her shoulders in slight waves she wasn't able to brush out. She cursed at the heat as she stabbed the last rod into the ground; she was already sweating and they hadn't even done a sweep of the house yet.

And as she wiped her brow and took another peak around the garden, she spotted it.

Or, rather, spotted _him._

He hadn't noticed her yet, he was too busy pushing a barrel full of garden supplies and his back was to her. She couldn't believe she hadn't even seen him until now, so suddenly. She had missed the tool shed in the corner of the garden that he must have been in as well. She observed that he wasn't wearing a shirt, just slacks and worn shoes. She could see all the hard work he _must_ put in from his glistened and toned body. He was practically _rippling_ with muscles, and being slightly dirty only accentuated a masculinity about him. His hair was an orderly mess, slightly long with some of it spiking out in the back (think of a mix between his shippuden hair and his hair in the last). His skin was tanned from working outside, and was free from blemishes aside from a few scars she could see on his hip and shoulder. He turned to face her direction, still unaware of her presence.

Her mouth dropped.

He was very obviously related to Mikoto, with his midnight hair and charcoal eyes. He had a chiseled jaw, a sculpted nose, and a perfect mouth. The type of mouth that wasn't too thin, like most men's, but a little more fuller with a beautiful curve. All his aristocratic characteristics screamed 'Uchiha' to her, but there was something different as well. The hint of Sapphire that shined in his hair or the look in his eyes made him unique from the rest. The Uchiha's were a whole clan of good-looking attractive people. But this man, _this_ man was stunning.

It was then that Sakura did something completely uncharacteristic of herself (gawking was already a seldom thing for her with all she'd seen).

She leaned forward peering around one of the many trees, so engrossed in his presence that she didn't notice the overgrown roots surrounding her feet. She tripped on a protruding root and fell. _Hard_. She made a muffled "Ompf!" noise on her way down, her hands flailing to grab on to the tree next to her to catch herself. She couldn't reach the tree, and she barely had time to catch herself before her forehead almost smacked the ground. She cursed, as she had probably given her position away to a man she had been so openly staring at. And then, she did smack her forehead on the ground out of pure frustration at risking looking so stupid in front of this magnificent man.

"Ahem." She froze when she heard a deep clearing of the throat. _Right. Next. To . her. Head_.

Her head snapped up to see a pair of muddy shoes at the tip of her nose. How had he gotten over here so fast? Any hope for escape this unbearable moment was gone. She leaned up on her elbows to where she could see him stooping over her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Or maybe it was irritation, but her pride had already been wounded enough at being caught ogling. She scrambled to sit up and dust herself off, unsure what else she was supposed to do. Which completely baffled her even more. She had been found, quite literally, falling all over a man. Which was a very new thing for her because she couldn't remember a time since high school that she had ogled anyone. And she most definitely did not become speechless in front of men no matter how attractive.

And she had dated _plenty_ of attractive men.

But right now, in front of this Adonis of a man, she didn't know what to say. She was staring up at a man from the ground who had caught her red handed. She felt like her ears were filling with fluid and her whole body was getting hot. And then he spoke to her, and she cursed inwardly at how… _melted_ she felt at hearing it.

"What are doing here?" He spoke in a short, deep tone. He was still peering at her, shirtless (she hoped he didn't notice that her eyes kept darting to those glorious abs), and the slight frown he adorned told her that he was not happy. It struck a chord with her that she had seen him before, that he looked so familiar. But she couldn't put her finger on it, she was definitely sure she would have remembered ever seeing him! She was still aghast and she couldn't think; no one else was supposed to be here as far as she had been told. Mikoto had said that her son was the only one with access-

It clicked. ' _Oh! This must be her son! Maybe I remember seeing his face in one of Ino's magazines a while ago. He must not have known we were coming.'_

Her mind was in shambles at being confronted and she couldn't stop herself. She blurted out "Are you Mikoto's son?" completely ignoring his previous question.

He blinked, slightly taken aback by her inquiry. Instead of answering, she got a response that she wasn't expecting.

He narrowed his eyes at her, suspicion swelling in those dark orbs as if that name set off a trigger in him.

He definitely wasn't happy to see her here. If she were a lesser woman she would've shrunken from his gaze and crawled off to find a corner to die in. But she had her own pride to patch up, since she had been acting like an idiot ever since she had spotted him. She was Sakura Haruno for goodness sake! She never ran from the face of danger!

Even if it was one that looked like _that_.

"How do you know that name? Who are you?" He asked, neither of them were very good at answering questions at this point. She could hear the underlining threat in his voice for trespassing. She knew the Uchiha were very protective of this land. It didn't help that she had been stabbing metal rods into the perfect grass that he, taking in the dirt and wheel barrow as clues, had been taking care of. He could easily have her arrested if he felt inclined to do so. She needed to get this misunderstanding under control before she ended up behind bars.

"I'm…uh..Sakura." _'What was that? What the fuck was that?!'_ her inner voice nagged. That was not what she was going to say to get this shit in order.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. _'Oh, he thinks I'm a moron now. Great.'_

He sighed before moving his gaze away from her, momentarily looking around before holding his hand out for her. Her harlequin eyes peered up at him, flicked to his large and slightly calloused hand, and back up to his face that was still glancing around as if searching for something.

' _Your killing me; TAKE THE DAMN HAND!'_ her subconscious shouted.

She reached out to place her hand in his, which seemed to take a millennia. He almost seemed surreal to her. She thought her hand would go right through his as if a man as handsome as this shouldn't exist, but it was solid and firm as it closed around hers and helped her up like she was as light as a feather. She felt a light buzz upon the contact, and was shaken when it moved down her arm and into her tummy. Nerves, she guessed.

She went to start speaking again and use her eloquence to prove that she wasn't an idiot, but there was a clump in her throat and she ended up only coughing. Nerves again, she guessed. Of course she had to choke in the most inopportune moments. He turned his attention back to her, hearing her struggle to find her words though he was unaware of the effect he was having on her. Finally, she managed to speak clearly, but was a little rushed with her hand still in his hold.

"I, um, was hired. To investigate the haunting here? I thought she might've have told you we were coming to help."

Alright, maybe it wasn't as smooth as she thought it was. Whatever. It got the point across.

He looked at her again, slightly confused and unsure what to do, although she couldn't read much through his lack of expression. His eyes lingered a little longer, taking in her appearance. He spoke again, "Are you here alone?"

"Ah, no. My partner is probably out front waiting for me right now."

Still expressionless as he looked at her. It was kind of making her self-conscious. And a little weirded out. Had he been at the manor so long he forgot his social skills? Having his eyes on her made her uneasy, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. Did she have something on her face? He finally released her hand, and she was unsure if she was relieved or a little disappointed.

"Well," he said casually, "let's not keep them waiting then."

He started walking towards the iron gate she had entered through to get into the backyard. He paused when he noticed she wasn't following and glanced back at her as if to say 'are you coming?' She realized that she had been standing there and staring like a complete moron. _Again_. Geez. That was usually the look she gave Thomas when he was being a coward. She snapped out of it, fast walking to catch up. His eyes flickered to her hair, and then her face again as he turned around and continued through the gate. When she caught up to him she matched his steps. "So you are him? Mikoto's son I mean? She said you were the one who told her about us." She saw him glance at her through the corner of his eyes, but didn't turn to her before replying "Yes."

He really wasn't much for chatting, was he?

It was a shame, because she really enjoyed looking at his mouth.

' _Oh, holy hell woman. Keep it together. We don't drool over ANYONE. Remember?'_

Interesting thing was, she had never needed to be reminded before.

XXX

They rounded the corner, Sakura slightly walking behind the shirtless man as if she was still unsure what to do. Thomas was leaning on his car and fiddling with the settings on his camera, obviously done with his side of the job and waiting for Sakura to show up before he continued.

Thomas jumped slightly, almost dropping his camera at the sight of the stranger. He expected Sakura to be alone since the place was empty, so the shirtless Uchiha had been a shock. The man walked right up to Thomas without as much as a warning. Thomas straightened his back and pushed off the hood to greet the man he was somewhat intimidated by. He had a reason to be, Thomas had never been one for working out and this guy in front of him was as rough and rugged as a guy could get. Sasuke simply held out his hand and said, "You must be the partner." In an even voice.

Thomas outstretched his hand to shake the stranger's, while peering at Sakura for some kind of explanation as to what was going on. She offered a slight shrug as she mouthed 'son'. She noticed him give her a double take, and a grin quickly broke out on his face. Sakura scrunched her nose in confusion, not sure what Thomas' silly grin was for. Now was not the time to laugh. He had a shirtless stranger in front of him practically demanding attention with his presence.

Especially when the stranger in front of him didn't seem amused in the slightest.

"Yeah, I'm Thomas. And you are?..."

Oh, why hadn't she bothered to ask him his name?! How could that have slipped her mind?

"Sasuke." He replied, and Sakura felt that it suited him perfectly.

"Well, Sasuke, nice to meet ya. So what type of experiences have you had so far?" Thomas asked casually when he got his hand back. Sakura noticed Thomas was gently holding the hand that Sasuke had shook as if the grip was too tight. Good grief; one would think that lugging heavy equipment around all the time would beef him up a little. Sakura decided she was going to make him get a gym membership once they got back home.

"Experiences?" Sasuke repeated, not quite understanding the statement.

Thomas clarified for him, "You know, footsteps in the hallway, moving shadows, typical haunting stuff."

Sasuke gave him a knowing look. "All of that happens here, but I've grown used to it."

Thomas was surprised at how casual he had said it.

"You wouldn't mind showing us around then?" Thomas inquired. Sakura hadn't even thought of asking. Sasuke had thrown her out of her element, and now she felt like she was bumbling around like some newbie.

Sasuke smirked and nodded his head before starting up the stairs to the house. Thomas glanced at Sakura again, and stared blankly as Sasuke disappeared through the front door. And then he was actually laughing at her as if he couldn't contain himself anymore. He bent over at the waste and used a free hand to stabilize himself with his car as he belted out a few howls. She glared at him, about to ask him what the hell is wrong with him- when she glanced down at her dirty hands and remembered that she had fallen hard into the grass earlier. _Did_ she have something on her face?! She checked to make sure Sasuke was nowhere to be seen before she hurriedly wiped at her cheeks to feel if there was any dirt on her face. These ridiculous events just kept piling up for her. She found her cheeks and forehead clean, but now Thomas was at the point of tears in his eyes.

He wiped at his eyes with his forefinger before strolling up the steps to follow Sasuke. He let out one last "hah!" before he too disappeared through the oak door. Anger rushed through her, she had no clue what he was laughing at. She ran her hands through her hair in frustration when she felt something hard. She pulled it out, carefully not to rip her hair out in the process. She gaped at the offending object in her hand.

This whole time, she had a twig sticking out of her hair.

She cursed under her breath and threw the branch violently to the ground. She violently stomped over it, hearing the satisfying snap in two, before following Thomas and Sasuke into the house that hadn't seen outsiders for a hundred years.

XXX

 **I realized that I haven't put in any disclaimers yet. Oops.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The story and plot however are original**

 **The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe that was made into a movie.**


	4. The Hidden Interior

**Back for chapter 4? Oh thank goodness, you kind souls. I worry all the time that my writing doesn't sound right, but I think I'm getting it down pretty well. I have a lot of time on my hands with trying to find a job and such. I get a little nervous when I don't get a lot of reviews. Please R &R, it makes me feel good when I get feedback and lets me know people actually enjoy my story. This chapter has a little more Sasuke Sakura interaction. I'm going for an aloof and detached Sasuke, so let me know if I'm getting it right or if you have any advice as well.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto; the story is original.**

Chapter 4: The Hidden Interior

XXXX

Sakura closed her eyes when the cool air hit her face, relishing the feel of being out of the harsh sun. The scent of old wood and mothballs entered her nostrils as she crossed the threshold. When she opened her eyes again, she was welcomed by a large marble arch way, leading into a grand foyer. Sloping scarlet tapestries hung from the high ceiling and walls. The walls were a dark paneled wood, as was the dual staircase. A hefty matching carpet made of wool with symmetrical gold linings covered a majority of the floor. All and any of the furniture in the room was hidden under white sheets. She could see old lamps bolted onto the walls, but wasn't sure if they worked anymore. It seems as though nothing had been touched since the 1900s, but the amount of dust was surprisingly low. The Gothic-style manor felt more like a historic museum than a haunted house.

Thomas approached the admiring Sakura from another room on the left.

"Hey! You finally got the stick out of your hair!" Thomas said beaming. He was still relishing in her embarrassment.

"Oh shut up. Where's Sasuke?" Sakura hissed. She had just been lightheaded earlier and been clumsy; and slightly surprised at finding such a beautiful man. But she was in professional mode now, and she could care less about beautiful men with rock hard abs. At least until she was done with a job.

"Waiting quite impatiently in the next room. If your done gawking in here that is. I don't blame ya, its pretty cool." Thomas replied, ignoring her annoyance with him.

Sakura huffed. "Lead the way."

She followed Thomas into the next room, which she assumed was a guest waiting room back in the day. Similar to the foyer, all of the furniture in this room was covered in white sheets as well, and the lights were either off or not working. They few rays from the sun lightened the room enough to where she could see Sasuke leaning against the wall waiting. He had put on a plain button-up white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and left open. _'I must still be lightheaded from the sun, and not from his insistent display of his body.'_ Sakura reasoned. One hand unconsciously came up to fan her face that was getting hot again. He gave one nod before continuing on through the next doorway.

Sakura quickly learned that Sasuke wasn't big with social interactions. Their tour was quick, with Sasuke stopping and announcing each room, and then continuing on not too long after. He didn't leave much room for any small talk or questions. She also learned that Sasuke was clearly irritated with them being here and taking up his time. He looked to be in a permanently…blank/sour mood? She didn't know exactly how to explain his weird monotone glare. It put a slight damper on his hotness. Sakura didn't care about his standoff attitude; she was under employment from his mom. She didn't take orders from him and she would do what needed to solve this case. No matter how cute his butt was in those slacks.

Thomas slightly elbowed her. She blushed. Oops. First time she's ever been caught staring at a man's ass. Maybe she could handle the situation better if she would stop embarrassing herself.

The last room they ended up in was a long dining room. This room, she noted, was the first one that she saw any artwork on the wall. The covered painting was ginormous! The width was as big as the fireplace it hung over. She assumed it was a pretty important painting, maybe a portrait of an ancestor? Or a family portrait? She couldn't tell, it was covered just like everything else. Sakura frowned. Ignoring the past was never a good thing, especially when there were spirits involved.

She felt a tick in her hand and an unbridled curiosity burning in her brain. Her hand instinctively reached out and touched the edge, feeling the soft silk enclosing in her fingers. She didn't know why, but she had the overwhelming urge to tug it off. To know what the thin fabric was hiding underneath it besides different pigments of oil based paints.

And she was about to, until a larger hand closed in on her wrist and stopped her. She felt like a little kid, being caught red handed reaching into the cookie jar before dinner. She turned slightly to face a looming Sasuke. His closeness surprised her, and she felt goosebumps prickling her skin as she felt his chest on her shoulder and his forearm hairs on hers. The room around her grew hot again like she was back out in the sun, and her throat had gone dry. Even with his piercing obsidian eyes boring into her hand, she couldn't help but notice the small curve of his clavicle and the hardness of his stomach from his open shirt. Her eyes were desperate to dart anywhere but into his gaze. She had obviously done something wrong again.

"Don't touch that. Ever." He berated sharply. He turned and looked into her shocked emerald eyes, making sure she got the message. He held the gaze a second longer, perhaps to make sure his point came across, before letting go and turning away from her.

"O-okay." She agreed breathlessly, body frozen but slightly on fire. She shook her head, trying to get her mind back on track. _'I am a professional, I am a professional…'_ her mind chanted.

An amused Thomas just stood there, an eyebrow quirked in inquiry. He had never seen Sakura so rattled in front of someone before. He was definitely gonna take the opportunity to mess with her when Sasuke was out of sight.

Sasuke led them back into the foyer, where the dual grand staircase was. Sasuke stopped then, staring at the steps. When Thomas asked about seeing the second floor, he gave a hesitant response.

"There's just a variety of empty rooms on the second floor, nothing extravagant. Do you really need to look up there?" He asked in a monotone voice as he looked at them. Sakura could feel slight heat under his gaze, but she did not shy away this time.

"It's kind of what we do, being ghost hunters and all." Sakura replied.

"Ghost hunters?" He repeated, a slight hint of amusement coming off his lips.

"Well, more like paranormal investigators." Sakura clarified.

He looked away, as if thinking over his next decision. He had rights to the house and he could very well kick them out, but she wasn't going down without a fight. They had drove all the way here to do this. She wasn't going to let this trip be for nothing.

"…well you can look around upstairs, if you'd like. I have some business to take care of at the moment. I'll come find you when I'm done, just don't mess with anything." He caved.

Sasuke briskly walked off, leaving Sakura and Thomas alone.

"He's kind of strange." Thomas states.

"Yeah…" She says slowly. Her head slightly tilts as she studies the long ebony hair hovering over his shoulders.

"You seem to like him though. Or at least his body."  
Sakura faces him and glares. He smirks; enjoying the rise he's getting out of her.

"What? You think I missed that glazed puppy dog look in your eyes earlier?" He teased.

She scoffed. "And his personality is totally flat. It was nothing. He just caught me off guard, that's all."

"Uh huh. Just admit it Sakura, you think he is _toooootally_ hot." He baited, adding emphasis on the word totally. She scrunched her face. So what if she thought he was 'totally' hot, she was a professional. She was here for an investigation, not some handsomely annoyed CEO who obviously didn't want them snooping around his family's home.

"Come on, we have work to do before he comes back and his hospitality ends."

XXXX

She found that Sasuke was right, a majority of the rooms on the second floor were either locked or empty, and they didn't have a key. Maybe Sasuke did, but if he had a key why would he leave some rooms locked and not others? _'Unless, maybe he's trying to hide something.'_ She thought suspiciously. She needed to watch him more closely, and next time she had an opportunity she had some questions for him. A flash of earlier came to memory, where she coul feel his breath on her cheek and his skin sliding against hers. She shivered at the memory, wiping her arms to get rid of the reappearing goosebumps. She cursed her body for betraying her.

She won't watch him quite that close.

Sakura was checking all the doors in the east wing while Thomas checked the other side. She was almost to the end of a hallway full of empty rooms when she opened a fully furnished bedroom, and none of it was covered! Her eyes lit up in excitement at her find. It was covered in dark blue and purple hues, with a large vanity and king sized high poster bed. Sakura quietly made her way inside, she didn't want Sasuke popping up out of nowhere and telling her she can't be in here. Her job was to snoop around, damn it!

She creeped around the spacious room, taking in the elegant linens and the old jewelry and makeup sitting out on the vanity. She saw that the bed sheets and pillows were covered in a thin layer of dust. And as she moved on, she was intrigued that this seemed to be the only room that was dusty and wasn't all covered up. She continued to walk around the room, taking in the finesse of the bed post and stained dressers. This family had a lot of old money that was for sure. Some of the details were hard to see, because this room was much darker than any she'd been in so far. The curtains were drawn and no light was getting in. All the other rooms were in a covered and barren state, and in those rooms there was an absence of _something_ that made it feel so vacant. The emptiness probably.

This room had an essence, and she couldn't tell if it was comforting or not.

"Hmmm," She hummed, "what secrets are you hiding in here?" She murmured to herself. There had to be something here if it was left this way. She wanted to move the blinds so she could see better, but she couldn't. She had to be careful not to touch anything as she went through the bedroom. She didn't want Sasuke knowing that she was in here, and it'd be much easier to tell in this room because the dust would wipe off and leave prints.

She made a mental note that they would set up cameras in here, and as she was doing so something on the vanity caught her eye.

On closer inspection, she saw that there was a clean spot, free of dust on the vanity in the shape of a type of necklace?

"Ah," She discovered, "so it's a missing secret. Dually noted." She said. She looked around for a couple more minutes, but didn't find anything else out of order.

She quietly left the room and shut the door behind her with a soft click. She hoped that Thomas found something as well in the right wing. She made her way back down the hallway and through the gallery. All the pictures in there as well had been taken down, but there were still name plates underneath the vacant spaces. She took more mental notes as she continued down. More questions were arising and they hadn't even been there for an hour.

Thomas met her at the archway at the top of the stairs.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us." Sakura stated as she began to descend down the stairs. Thomas followed behind her.

"Yeah. Dude, I found some rooms furnished rooms that weren't covered. Looks like they haven't been messed with in decades. There was dust everywhere." Sakura immediately whipped around in excitement. _'Rooms?!'_ Her mind screams. How many more did he find?

"I found one too! How many did you see?" She asked excitedly.

"Two bedrooms it looked like. One was red and the other was blue, but they were too dark to really look at. The blue one had a fireplace in it, which was pretty cool, but there were cobwebs in that sucker everywhere."

"We'll put cameras up in all of them tonight. Call Jonathan and see where he's at. We'll go get the equipment and start setting up before Sasuke gets back."

They continued down the stairs, heading the front door.

"Agreed. The guy seems really protective of this place."

"Or of something in this place. And I'm going to find out what it is."

XX4 Hours LaterXX

"What is this?" Sasuke demanded. He had reemerged, and was standing at the entrance of the white tent they had set up out in front of the house near Thomas' car and Jonathan's van. He had put on fresh slacks, a nice pressed shirt, and a midnight blue silk vest. Sakura could see the discomfort in his furrowed eyebrows and the thin lined frown. Sakura couldn't blame him; he'd probably seen all the wires, cameras, and devices strewn across the manor. It hadn't been easy setting all that up before dark, especially with how old the running electricity in the house was. Jonathan had a hard time hooking all the cameras up with different plugs in the walls. Jon was a handy man though, and had managed to directly hook up most of the lines through the circuitry leading to the generator.

The station consisted of large EMV that looked like a flat radio with a lot of knobs to detect wavelengths, a portable blue cooler for refreshments, a table with fuzzy screens, and a couple small wooden stools to sit on. The rest of the tent looked like a blinking lab room. It was important to set up a station outside of a haunting zone to ensure all the recording equipment wouldn't be tampered with and remain unharmed.

"It's okay, we used tape and putty that won't leave marks on the wall." Jonathan replied. Jonathan resisted the urge to cringe as Sasuke captured him in his dark gaze. He could see the scrutiny in his dark eyes. Sasuke only looked for a split second before he turned to Sakura who was sitting in front of the monitors.

"Who is that?" He asked, nodding his head in the direction where Jonathan stood. Jonathan almost scoffed in offense, the guy was completely ignoring him now, but his cold gaze earlier caused him to keep his mouth shut. He had the stature of a hard powerful man, and Jonathan was just a guy who fixed things.

Sakura noticed Jon's reaction to Sasuke's dryness and quickly stepped in.

"This is Jonathan, he's our tech guy. He sets all the equipment up for us." Sakura explained.

"Equipment?"

"Yeah, cameras, thermal detectors, audio recorders, anything that will record any paranormal activity going on in there." Sakura replied.

"So what now?" Sasuke asked impatiently. He didn't seem thrilled to have more people showing up to mess with the place.

"First we just test out the equipment. Sometimes we get feedback sometimes we don't. After we know everything works, then we start our investigation through the house." She informed.

Sasuke studied the equipment around them, looking at all the buttons, knobs, and blinking lights. He seemed a little bewildered. Sakura would be too if she wasn't used to seeing all of it. She looked up at Sasuke. Why he came back if he had business to attend to? _'He probably doesn't like leaving us alone here. We're are the first people besides an Uchiha to come onto the property in a long time. They must consider it sacred grounds or something.'_ He looked uncomfortable and out of place in there little headquarters.

"Alright, what time is it now." Sakura asked.

"T-minus 10 minutes before midnight." Thomas answered curtly.

"Perfect." Sakura pulled a couple of switches, lighting up the screens on the table. She pulled up a program on the laptop to track audio, light, and heat signatures. "Alright, everything's up. Now, we wait."

Jonathan leaned back in a fold out chair near the cooler. Thomas had opted to sit a little ways from Sakura, occasionally looking at the screen and having a casual conversation with Jonathan.

Sakura noticed Sasuke still standing at the entrance of the tent. He was still looking off into the distance, taking in his strange surroundings. She almost told him he could leave because he looked like he really wanted to, but the prospect of leaving them here alone and to their devices wasn't an option for him. He resembled a wild animal lost in a lab.

"Sasuke."

He looked over to her, staring right into her eyes. She felt a little flutter in her stomach. She let out a light smile and patted the stool next to her, inaudibly offering him a seat.

It surprised her when he did so without so much as a frown, and as he moved to sit next to her he said a quiet "thank you". She turned her eyes to the screen quickly, her body fully aware that he was right next to her.

Jonathan opened the cooler. He dug around in a bit before pulling out a couple of beers and carelessly slapping the lid shut. He made himself comfy and propped his feet on it and handed a cold can to Thomas, who happily took it. Jon peered over at Sasuke.

"Yo, you want one? It'll take a load off." Jonathan yapped as he outstretched his arm, offering Sasuke the beverage. Sasuke acknowledged him, and eyed the can like it was a foreign object.

"Oh, right. Rich boy, probably never drank anything like this." Jonathan said haughtily.

Sasuke snatched the offending object from him, glaring at the other man. Jon retracted his hand in a panicked manner. Sakura joined Sasuke's glare. Jonathan didn't need to patronize him; he obviously didn't like being here as it was. Without looking from the screens, she adjusted herself in her seat. Jonathan had gone back to talking to Thomas and laughing about something she didn't hear. Her leg shot out and her heel jammed against the seat of the chair, providing enough force for Jonathan to topple over in his chair. Thomas snickered as he heard a strangled yelp come from Jon's mouth as he hit the cold dirt beneath him. He newly opened can of beer splattered onto his shirt and face before rolling away, slipping under the tents wall.

"Sakura." He whined.

"Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate." She piped, not even bothering to look and admire her work. She felt Sasuke's gaze on her, and turned to him with a mischievous smile. She didn't receive one back, but she swore she saw a small upturn on the left side of his mouth.

XXHours laterXX

"Nothing, absolutely nothing." Thomas grumbled. He stood up from his stool and stretched out his legs. They'd sat there for almost 2 hours and they hadn't even heard one creak in the house.

"The stairs should at least groan a little by themselves with how old the house is." He complained, and Sakura agreed with him. The house should be settling on the steps and floorboards, but absolutely nothing had been picked up on the audio. Hearing no noise, at all, was unsettling. Which was strange, because it was usually the opposite that worried them.

Sakura voiced her concerns. "The absence of noise could be bad to. It's possible that our audio might not be working right."

"The house never creaks on its own." Sasuke stated. All eyes looked to him except for Jon, who had his hood pulled over his head and was snoring lightly.

"Are you sure?" Thomas asked.

"Yes; the house was built with an incredible foundation and the house has already settled to its limits."

"How would you know?"

"I grew up in this house. My dad told me all about the structure since there were no blueprints."

"You grew up here? But you mother said nobody's lived here since the massacre."

"Practically. I've been playing out in that garden since I could walk."

' _Now I think I understand why he cares so much about this place. The Uchihas really do see this as a home away from home.'_

"How much do you really know about the place?" Sakura asked.

"A decent amount. I've spent a lot of time here." He admitted.

He could be a treasure trove of information that could make this a lot easier on them.

"Well, does that mean you've seen the ghost?" Thomas asked.

He was silent for a while, lost in thought as though he was trying to pick the right words.

"Yes."

"Really? Who is it?"

"…I don't know. I've never seen his face."

"But it is a him?"

"Yeah."

"Great, that takes one possibility out. I'm gonna check the audio anyways."

Sakura put on some clunky headphones and fiddled with the volume on her computer. Sasuke silently watched her, taking in the focused eyes and determination set on her brow. She felt his studying eyes on her again, trying to figure out what she was doing. Or maybe he was studying her, trying to figure her out. She snorted internally. _'good luck with that.'_ Her mind said snidely.

She pushed a couple more buttons, clicking and clacking, before she pulled one headphone off her left ear and spoke.

"Nothing seems to be wrong with the audio-"

"How is your hair that color?" Sasuke asked. _'So that's what he was looking at? My hair?'_

Earlier he had been perfectly fine with basking in silence, but after the hours of nothing to do he might be bored. Sitting like this for hours wasn't exactly fun. He chose to be here though. She giggled a little and regarded him. She figured she'd humor him for now; they'd need to be on his good side for when they start drilling him with questions.

"I get asked if it's real all the time."

His face slightly scrunched in confusion. Emotion never seemed to fully reflect in his face. He was a hard person to read, except for when he was irritated.

"Is it?"

She sighed. "Yeah, it's a mutation. The melanin that gives a slight pink tint in my skin didn't change for my hair. The doctors said it's rather abnormal, but they've seen less serious cases of it before."

"Ah."

"Imagine if it was a different tone, like orange! Thank goodness I'm not tan." She joked.

She expected a little chuckle, but she got nothing as he continued to look at her. _'I guess he had his fill of talking already.'_ That wasn't gonna stop her though, she was going to crack that hard exterior and figure out whatever he knew.

"This place is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the country, I thought we'd get something by now-"

"Sakura, look!" She heard Thomas shout next to her. Then, she heard the creak resounding through the headphones on her ears. The others in the room also heard it from the computer. It was the sound of tired hinges screeching, like a door being opened. Sakura's eyes darted from screen to screen, flipping through to see where it was.

"There!" Thomas pointed, going to the top right screen. It was the east wing, the door at the very end of the hallway, slowly opening without a human being in sight. Her eyes widened.

"Finally!" She rejoiced.

Sasuke remained silent, but his attention had been captured and his eyes glued to the screen. He went rigid as he picked up the movements.

At this point the door was almost fully open, still going painfully slow. Sakura's trained eyes could see it, a dark shadow reflecting against the door before disappearing. The camera started flickering.

"Is the temperature dropping at all?" Sakura asked. Thomas came over and looked at the computer screen. He was shocked. "no change in temperature!" He reported.

"Really? Interesting."

There was a flicker again.

And then a full body apparition.

"Woah!" Thomas exclaimed, fully mesmerized and happy that they were seeing this on screen and not in person.

It was impossibly dark, but there was a stark contrast reflected in the night vision camera. A solid black mass had appeared in the hallway. Creaking sounds erupted in her ears, as if the house was coming to life under their watch.

The mass disappeared only a second later, and Sakura released a strained breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Normally she would be excited at seeing this, but there was a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. It felt like déjà vu, the strange feeling inside her. She shook it off as if it was a pesky bug; she figured it was because she had never seen a full body apparition like this.

The camera flickered again. It became fuzzy and hard to see, and Sakura could barely blink before it suddenly turned blue. Before they even knew what was happening, all the screens were fizzling it out until they all turned blank.

"What happened?" Sakura whispered in disbelief. All the cameras had been working fine! Sakura turned around and nudged the sleeping tech genius awake.

His snoring stopped abruptly. "Huh, wha? What's going on?" He muttered, rubbing at his sleepy eyes.

"All the screens just suddenly shut down." Sakura explained.

"What? No way, the cameras are all fully charged and everything is hooked up right."

Jon looked at the now black monitors with a childish hate; he didn't want to go back in and fix everything.

"Well, what? You want me to go look at them or something."

"We were getting recordings of a full body apparition, so if-"

"Oh, no. Most certainly not. I know what happened, whatever's in there shut that shit off on purpose and I'm not about to go anger it by turning them on by myself."

"Ill go with you." Sakura offered, but she knew Jon never cared to actually participate in their activities. He just ran the equipment.

"It'll probably be useless tonight anyways, I won't be able to see half the wires. The whole point was to test out the equipment anyways, right?"

"Right." Sakura said begrudgingly.

"Then we got what we came for." He replied.

Sasuke remained silent and sat back in his seat.

"Well, we'll just come back sometime tomorrow, because were all gonna be hibernating today since it's already what? 3? 4? In the morning?"

"Let's just listen to him, Sakura." Thomas encouraged.

"Alright, alright."

XXXX

The next day they arrived in the afternoon. Sasuke was there and opened the door for them as they went to assess the damage from the night before. Jonathan was the one who did most of it, studying the wires and circuits running through the house that were hooked up to the cameras.

"All the circuits are fried." He concluded after 15 minutes.

"Yeah, I can believe that. The electricity in the place is old, and all the lines probably don't work anymore. There's a couple light bulbs that blew out too." Thomas agreed.

"A majority are still gaslights, some others were switched over to hairpin light bulbs in 1901." Sasuke explained.

"That explains why all the lights didn't blow. The generator seems fine though. It's gonna take a good day or so before I can fix all this though."

"I guess we'll just have to come back early next weekend."

"Your coming back?" Sasuke asked irritably.

"Of course." Sakura retorted, a little more forcefully than she intended. Did he really think they had gotten what they wanted in one night?

"Didn't you get what you wanted though?" He bit back. Apparently he did.

"We already knew something was here. We were hired to find out why it's here. It's going to take a while." Sakura explained, trying to stress their importance. There it was again, the long somber look her gave her.

"…Alright. Maybe you can help after all." He relented. She rejoiced, her mind dancing with glee.

"We'll be back on Friday, is there a key or-" Sasuke cut her off.

"I'll be here, making sure nothing happens to the house." Sakura sighed. She wouldn't be escaping this strange but alluring man so soon.

"Okay…nice meeting you Sasuke."

XXXX

 **This chapter was getting wayyyy too long, so I had to end it when I felt was acceptable. As I said before, please read and review!**

 **There is some confusion on what Sasuke is; is he a reincarnation? Are there 2 Sasuke's? Will I tell you? No, I don't want to give it away. So you'll just have to keep reading I guess lol**

 **Till next time!**


	5. A New Member to the Team

**Hello all~ 5** **th** **chapter, hopefully it's starting to sound more interesting for my readers. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know. Or if you just wanna say something nice. R &R**

 **Crysteldragon: I plan on giving Sasuke and Sakura a happy ending! But I can't make it all rainbows and butterflies, right?**

 **Guest, Lynnai & Niquee21: I'll keep that in mind, this chapter is supposed to be long too, but I'll do my best not to cut it off too early!**

 **Guest: im glad you like my writing! I do my best to make it different and wholly my own.**

 **This chapter they are delving farther into the investigation. Ino comes along, much to Sakura's dismay. I'm trying out first person from Sakura's perspective to see if it gives the story that extra edge. Let me know if u dig it or if I should change back or not.**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters are not mine; plot is my original work.**

Chapter 5: A New Member to the Team

* * *

I woke with a start and a cold chill running down my spine. My room was still dark, but the sun's rays were peeking past. Was it morning already? My squinted eyes glanced around my room, trying to decipher the time of day. The digital clock on the dresser said 7 o'clock. I ran my hands over my prickled and wet skin. A shaky arm rose to wipe the drying beads of sweat off my forehead. I'm completely drenched, and I must've kicked off the covers in the middle of the night. The only thing still covered was a single foot.

Why was the air vent so loud?

It takes a few seconds to clear my sleep induced mind to realize where the noise is coming from.

The strange loud gasping noise wasn't coming from the vent under my bed, but from my own lips. Short wheezing gasps coming out in tufts of sharp breathes. I hadn't even realized. I shut my eyes and focused on calming my breath and the erratic beating of my heart.

A loud sigh erupted. I should've known I'd wake up like this. For weeks I'd been having the same nightmare. For some reason, I can never remember it that well. That's normal for dreams, I know, but I feel like I should remember it. That there's something of utter importance that they're trying to tell me. It's vivid and feels real, like a I'm caught in a fugue state. But as soon as I awake it fades.

I can only remember a couple recurring things.

There's darkness, and then there's red, and there's running. Lots of useless running. Somethings chasing me, and it's never caught me. It only gets closer each time. This time was a close call.

I could feel scrapping nails against my back. To the point where the hand was just about to close in on the fabric of my shirt and jerk me back. I could feel its footsteps on top of me. It had closed in way too fast, and I'd never had a chance of getting away. Then my eyes were snapping open and I was looking up to a blank ceiling, panting. _'How long will it be until it finally catches me and it's all over?_ ' I wondered.

I shook my head and swung my legs to the edge of the bed. My thoughts were all too ominous at the moment. _'Don't think like that. Just do what you always do'_ I grabbed my towel off the floor and walked to the bathroom across the hall, _'ignore it and forget it happened. It has to go away sometime._ ' I shed my sticky clothes and grimaced. After all that sweat, I needed this shower.

When I walked into the kitchen, feeling refreshed and new, I came upon a strange and rare sight. Ino was sitting in the kitchen, a mug in hand and a plate of toast in front of her. She had already gone through her morning ritual. Her makeup done perfectly and outfit already on.

Upon further inspection, I leaned over to see that the murky brown liquid in her cat mug was _coffee_. I prodded at my damp hair with my towel, giving her an inquisitive stare.

"I'm trying to wake up, I've got a long day today." Ino sighed, biting off a piece of some burnt toast smothered in butter. This girl really was helpless in the kitchen. I hung the towel over my chair and went over to the counter to dump Ino's disgusting coffee.

"Hey! I worked hard on that!" She whined. I scoffed. That was definitely not coffee to be proud of, and I needed to erase its existence. I reached up into the cupboard and pulled out a box of black Chai tea.

"If you're looking for a caffeine fix, this is what you want." I told her, getting a new pot of hot water ready. I knew she was pouting at the back of my head without even turning around.

"Oh," she scratched the back of her confused head, "but I thought you drink coffee to feel more awake." She pondered. I sat down in my chair, waiting for my own toast to pop up.

"Only on the tough days when they schedule me at 6." I replied smoothly. Coffee wasn't my favorite either, but I was willing to down it to get to work on time.

I took a bite of my light brown toast I'd just smothered with peanut butter. My fuzzy brain was still trying to figure out what drove Ino's erratic behavior today of coffee and an early morning. I checked out the time on my phone. It was 8 o' clock, 4 hours earlier than when she usually dared to emerge from her room on a free day. I looked at her with narrow eyes as she scrolled through something I couldn't see on her phone.

"You don't work today." It came out as more of a statement than a question.

"Nope." She replied, still busy on her phone and eyes downcast. As if she didn't want to look at me…

"But you said you have a long day today. And you never get up earlier than me. What are you planning?" I accused. Her surprised face looked up then, her alarmed blue eyes meeting mine. I caught her red handed. She had been stalling, being on her phone and hoping that I wouldn't catch on. Now she was leaning her face against her hand and tracing the rim of her mug. She was purposefully avoiding my gaze; which meant only one thing.

Whatever she was planning had me factored into the equation. I couldn't do any shenanigans today though. I was going back to work on my case at the mansion and she knew that. I explicitly remember telling her….

No…..oh no.

She saw the look of absolute horror on my face at the realization of _why_ she was up so early. Her nervous smile confirmed my fears.

* * *

"You are not going!" I yelled, throwing her suitcase out of Thomas' car and on to the sidewalk. She let out a strangled gasp, running over to retrieve her poor pink bag. She stomped back over, bag in hand and threw it back into the trunk. She glared hard at me face to face. Without looking away I reached for the offending pink object again. Hand planted on the handle, I was prepared to throw her bag again, and make a getaway while leaving her on the curb.

Her hand darted out and grabbed the other side of her bag's handle. She kept it firmly in place before I could do anything. She bumped her forehead against mine, never looking away. All I could see was a sea of blue, but there was no way I was backing down.

"You. Aren't. Coming." I repeated.

"Yes. I am. You need me!" She proclaimed. I tried to tug the abused suitcase out of her grasp, but we were at a stalemate.

"What are you talking about? You're even worse with ghosts than Thomas is! The only reason you wanna go is to meet Sasuke, isn't it?" I accused, because I knew Ino. Her eyes had lit up and sparkled once I'd told her about meeting the esteemed celebrity CEO. I hadn't left out his Adonis good looks, but I also hadn't left out that the guy was weird. A closed off and harsh type of weird.

"Nu uh!" she childishly cried. "You've been acting strange lately Sakura Haruno; I don't know what it is but you need me and I need you right now! You've starved me of attention!"

"And you chose _now_ to do it?" I asked incredulously. This was exasperating, I didn't have time to argue with her about this. We needed to be there early enough to fix the wires. I also needed to run into town to gather more research on the estate.

I felt the anger fading from my body. I could see it in her eyes, they were practically touching my own she was so close, that she was worried about me. I couldn't blame her; lately I wasn't in the mood for any of the normal hanging we do. We hadn't even had our Thai Tuesday this week.

I wanted to keep my paranormal activities and my social life separate though. I liked to keep a degree of professionalism with my jobs. That was already hard enough when we worked at the hospital together.

Also, Ino always made investigating more work. Back when I had first started investigating Ino always tagged along, but she was whiny and distracting. And she was _loud_. I didn't expect it to be any different now.

I pulled back and yanked on the suitcase, causing a loud yelp to erupt from Ino as I launched her bag once again. She immediately moved to retrieve her suitcase. I took the opportunity to shut the trunk and make a mad dash for the passenger door.

She'd be mad about us leaving her for the weekend, but I wouldn't be there to deal with it.

Ino caught on just in time. She lunged after me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She pulled and stopped me just short of the door as I desperately reached for the handle. Why couldn't things just go the way I wanted them to for once?!

I couldn't in good conscious by angry at her for trying to be a good friend though, right? Oh, I could feel it. I was going to give in…

"Go get your bag pig, you can come." I sighed.

"Yay!" she yelled, letting go and skipping off to grab her bag sitting in the bushes. I leaned on the car door, my eyes closing and my defeated shoulders sinking. Thomas rolled down the window.

"You caved sooner than I thought. I was ready for more yelling." Thomas exclaimed.

"You know Ino always gets her way anyways." I replied, a smirk appearing as I thought of Ino's antics. Her friendship was so forceful and loyal; I wouldn't want it any other way.

"Just make sure she keeps her voice to a minimum in my car. And were not stopping for smoothies this time, I still have a strawberry stain on my backseat." Thomas complained.

"I'll do ya one better." I said mischievously. I slid back and opened the backseat door, sitting down. I stretched out, making myself comfortable. "She can have shotgun." I grinned.

Thomas groaned and smacked his head against the steering wheel while mumbling incoherent curses. Ino plopped down next to him, smiling a million watt smile as she put her seat belt on.

"Alright, let's go hunt some men!" Ino cheered.

"Ino…" I grumbled from behind her.

"Some ghost men!" She corrected.

What was I getting myself into?

* * *

"Oh, you stupid thing. You never work!" I grumbled, banging on my dusty stereo. The thing was a little old so the knobs didn't work as well as they used to. But, it was travel size and always seemed to work wherever I needed it. I slapped it one last time before static started to spew out the speakers. It started humming with life as I attempted to find a station that would work out in the wilderness.

"Finally! I was about bored to death over here." Ino teased. She was perched on the couch like Venus, phone gliding in the air as she held it up trying to find a signal. We had been here for 45 minutes already, and Sasuke was nowhere to be found. The door had been unlocked so I had taken it as an invitation to go ahead to get started. We split up into teams to work faster. Thomas and Jon was working their way upstairs while Ino and I took the first floor.

It would've been a good idea if I wasn't trying to do everything myself though. I placed my hands on my hips, turning from the wall to sternly look at her.

"Well, maybe if you helped like you 'claimed'" I made air quotations with my fingers, "you were here for, you wouldn't be so bored." Ino pursed her lips and tossed her useless phone next to her.

"I came to help with the exciting stuff, not messing with wires." Ino said in disgust, as if she was allergic to manual labor.

I pinched the bridge of my noise in frustration. As I thought, bringing Ino was going to be a hassle. I ignored Ino's whining and went back to finding a station.

I almost heard the sound of a rubber band snapping when Ino's attention span fell short. She shot off the couch and announced,

"I'm hungry, I'm gonna go find us some food. You think they actually keep anything in the kitchen here?" She asked.

"I doubt it since nobody's lived here for so long." I replied.

"Aw, I'll have to go out and get something then at the store. You want anything?"

"Yeah, whatever's fine." I waved her off, running errands was the one thing she was useful for anyways. Ino left the room in a chipper mood, happy to be doing something.

After she made her exit I was able to find a working station. Maybe it had been her bad attitude clouding the signal. Only moments after she left I picked up on a clear station. It was an old rock station, but I was perfectly fine with that.

A soft melody was just what I needed at the moment. Ino and Thomas were bickering back and forth during the trip. I had half a mind to see if Sasuke was around, at least he didn't whine, but I wasn't sure he'd be much better company. From my experience he wasn't a fan of other people.

He was nice to look at though, and he was always polite. In a cut and dry way. The image of Sasuke in the backyard came to mind. When he wasn't wearing a shirt and I could see all the grooves on his chest and abdominal…

I stopped my thoughts from delving any farther.

I had no time to be thinking like that. I had redo all the circuiting and still have time to go to the closest town's library to research the estate. The wires had never blew like this before; what had caused it? The black mass flashed in my mind. I knew ghosts could tamper with the charge in the air and drain batteries, but I've never seen anything like this. It left an unpleasant tingle on my back _. 'It's just an older spirit that's had time to figure out some tricks. We have to be careful. We don't know what else it can do.'_ I reminded myself.

I left the stereo on the bar table and climbed up the small ladder we brought to turn on the camera. I had changed out all the wires in the lounging room already. Now I just needed to check and make sure the cameras were still working. I wasn't the one who handled the tech equipment, Jon did, so I wasn't sure what I was doing. I was pressing random buttons and attaching different wires until a red light popped up. It had been working for me so far.

The quiet hum of the radio was just what I needed as _Fooled Around and Fell in Love_ by Elvin Bishop came on. Even though it was an old song, I enjoyed soft rock. It was soothing to the soul. I moved the ladder and climbed back up to my second target. Plugging random wires into slots, I started mouthing along to the words. I was so preoccupied I didn't notice the other presence walking into the room to observe what I was doing.

My hips started swaying to the beat as I fiddled with the camera. This was my last one finally! All this tedious work was making me bored and my shoulders are starting to ache.

I didn't notice that the latter had started to move under my feet as I swayed along. I felt the tip of the ladder too late. I yelped as I felt it gave underneath my feet. My bewildered eyes shut and my back tensed, prepared for the fall. But I never hit the ground.

I felt something wrap around my hips and steady me from behind. A jolt ran up my spine. Upon contact I knew they weren't Ino's dainty hands rushing to my rescue (even though I desperately hoped it was Thomas or Jon, and not a raven haired someone else….). But instinctively, I knew it wasn't them either. My body felt on fire at a simple touch. I'd only felt this once before…

I swiveled my upper body to peer into dark fathomless eyes. Sasuke was blankly looking up to me with his strong hands locked on my pelvis. He was wearing business attire again. A black knit vest with a white dress shirt underneath, and black trousers with leather shoes. I expected a glare of annoyance or anger, but I caught the slight amusement that twinkled in his eyes.

Lord. Why was I always such a klutz when he's around?

"Uh, thanks." I said awkwardly, turning away to hide the heat from where he touched me creeping up my cheeks. I held in a sigh of relief when Sasuke let go, the fire was going away, but I noticed the tingle of where his hands had been. I chose to consciously ignore the residue feeling. It had to be because he had...warm hands.

If it was anyone else, I would've laughed it off and start dancing again without a care in the world. I was a woman brimming with confidence and it had been a long time since I had to worry about my actions.

But this was Sasuke. Calm, reserved, and composed Sasuke. His stare was daunting, and he was more than intimidating. Not in a scary way by any means, but i had no better way to describe it. Some part of me wanted to impress him.

Maybe it was the hint of curiosity he had when I teased about my hair. Or the first moment I met him when I looked up to see the guarded look, but there was a part of me that know more about him. What had caused him to be this way?

After his initial reaction when we met, I wasn't sure what might be passed that hard exterior. He was all sharp lines and jagged points. Part of me thirsted for knowledge; to find out was causing it the walls around him. But at this rate he wouldn't give me the time of day. All I was doing was embarrassing myself every time he was around. I hadn't even known he was there this time!

"What were you doing?" Sasuke asked.

I nervously twiddled my thumbs as he focused his inquisitive eyes on me. His gaze always felt so heavy, like he was trying to trap me within a spell. But there was no way in hell that I was going to let him know what a simple look did to my body.

"I was rewiring the cameras…" I muttered, shyly looking away.

After he didn't answer right away, I risked a peek at him. Was he…is that a smirk on his face?!

"You know that wasn't what I was asking." He stated. If he was any other man, I would've sworn he was teasing me.

One minute he's a recluse, and the next he's teasing me? My confusion flared. I was getting agitated with how often this man made me uncomfortable.

"Fine, I was dancing. You have a problem with that?" I replied hotly, daring him to challenge my response again.

If my words annoyed him, he didn't show it. "Only when I have to save you." He replied just as smoothly. He looked down at me with his head slightly tilted, smugly reigning over me.

"Then you should've let me fall. I can handle a few bruises just fine." I replied with a huff. Did he think that embarrassing me was funny or something? And since when did he actually like to talk? I only met him last week, but the entire time he avoided any unnecessary conversation with anyone. Now, it was like he had fun pushing some of my buttons.

I turned my back on him, assessing my work and hoping that looking somewhere besides him would help get my wits together. I couldn't tell if I was angry or somewhat turned on. Damn. I disliked arrogance in a man, but the look he gave drove heat to lower parts of my body. Curse my womanly feelings!

He was too confusing right now, and I wanted him to leave.

"What kind of music is this?" He asked earnestly. I turned back to him, surprised that he would start up the conversation again. _'Was he just in a bad mood last time we were here? Because this is a completely different Sasuke.'_ I wondered.

He looked around and spied the radio on the table. It too, seemed so foreign to him in such a sophisticated and aged house. I almost laughed at the alien look he gave it. He had probably never listened to this type of music in his life before being from such a prestigious family.

"Classic rock. It's a nice rhythm to dance to sometimes." I stated, rocking from one foot to the other.

"I've never seen dancing like that before." _'Is he making fun of me? Again!'_ my mind raged.

I folded my arms across my chest and 'hymphed'. I was going to do what I was good at when I didn't know what to do. Sass. Lots and lots of sass.

"I think I dance just fine. Maybe you're a little insecure because you can't dance." I said haughtily.

I was hoping to get a rise out of him, but he only quirked an eyebrow at my insult. He turned back to me.

"I dance just fine." He replied matter-of-factly.

It was my turn to give him a taste of his own medicine. I rose a questioning hand to my chin and playfully pretended to scan him. I sent him a small grin and teased, "I don't think you can dance with that stick up your ass."

I was ready for the frown and glare. Or even narrow his eyes and the scoff at my boldness. But he must've been in a good mood today because he did neither.

Instead, he came forward. I instinctively took a step back from shock as he reached out to me. He quickly seized my waist and my hand, bringing me in close.

I' never been around one to know that Uchiha's never backed down from a challenge.

He swayed out into the middle of the floor, turning with precision. He dragged me along in the most elegant way I'd ever felt. Well, he looked elegant as I fell over myself. My legs didn't want to work when he suddenly reached out to me. It felt surreal; that a man like Sasuke was dancing with me. But with the feel of his hand clasping mine and his breath on my nose there was no mistaking it. He was expertly spinning me and pulling me back into his arms while keeping to the rhythm of the music.

 _I fooled around and fell in love_

I had never slowed danced like this before, so I was forced to blindly follow his lead. I didn't have to try too hard though, we were moving so smoothly that I felt like I was floating. An overwhelmed feeling rushed over me. A feeling of comfort and serenity, like i felt at home.

I could've let go and ripped myself away from him immediately. He hadn't even asked, and I didn't expected him to actually prove me wrong. Especially use me to demonstrate with him. But he was doing a beautiful job of it and I couldn't tear myself away. I kept my nervous gaze down to his chest. My neck on fire now but I didn't want him seeing.

' _Why am I acting like this?'_

"Still think I can't dance?" He asked. I shook my head absentmindedly.

Unconsciously I glanced up when he spun me and wrapped me in. His eyes were focused solely on me. When had a man's gaze felt so good? It wasn't like the other men I've dated, held with lust or hunger. It was a touch of curiosity, and a pinch of appreciation. A man who reveled in the challenge, and the journey along the way.

* * *

"Ahem."

My feet stopped at the sound of a clearing of someone's throat. I quickly pushed away, his arms falling away with ease. A strange feeling erupted at how easy it was for him to let go, but I knew better than to dwell on it. Maybe I was feeling sensitive from my recent break up with Kenji, but any…stirrings I felt needed to be thrown aside.

Ino was standing in the doorway, grocery bag in hand and the other planted at her hip. She adorned a very wide and telling smile. She strutted into the room, dumping the grocery bag onto the couch she had been lounging on earlier.

"Sakura; why haven't you introduced me to this handsome gentleman?" Ino asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. I felt jealousy run through my veins, feeling them turn from warm blooded to ice blue. Ino was my best friend and the closest thing I had to a sister.

But, she was and always had been, my biggest rival.

"Who is that?" Sasuke asked, peering down at me. The amusement in his eyes were gone, along with any indication of emotion. Like a snake that has a thin film of membrane closing over its eyes, hiding the true iris behind. Damn. I'm pretty sure we were having a moment there.

I nervously giggled; a nasty habit from having all eyes on me.

"Uh, Sasuke. This is my friend Ino; she's going to help this weekend with the case."

I stared at me a second more, studying to make sure I was telling the truth before turning away to regard my blonde best friend.

Ino had always had the sleekest hair, a beautiful hollow gold always pulled neatly in a high ponytail. Her eyes were a bright sky blue, piercing and eye catching from a mile away. She had a pretty round face, with a pixie nose and a soft curve on her bottom lip. She always knew how to present herself, and had no problem charming a man when she set her mind to it.

An overwhelming feeling of inferiority fell over me. One I hadn't felt since high school.

"Pleasure to meet you Sasuke." Her voice sounded as smooth as honey. She was already working her magic. Of course this had to be a day that Ino wore a tank that dipped just enough to show off her cleavage.

I don't think I even have cleavage unless I wear a double padded bra and pulled the straps as high as they could go.

But that story of an insecure girl is for another time that I'd prefer not to visit at the time.

I silently watched the exchange between them. Ino was flashing her perfect smile and showing off her pearly whites, and Sasuke looked like…well. Sasuke. I couldn't tell what he was feeling.

"Hn."

I almost laughed so _hard_.

I should've known Sasuke wouldn't be like most men.

Ino's smile faltered just slightly before her cheery façade returned. Her eyes darted from him to me, and then back to him again. Lingering. And then she said "okay!" and turned to grab the groceries she had thrown aside.

"Well, I'm gonna make myself something in the kitchen. I'll be in there if you need me. _So_ nice meeting you Sasuke." She waved as she bustled out of the room with her treats.

"She was…strange." Sasuke commented.

I couldn't stifle the smile that popped up on my face.

* * *

 **That concludes chapter 5! Next chapter Sakura will be doing more researching and the serious investigating will begin. Sasuke is beginning to warm up to Sakura,and it seems like only Sakura, but he's still guarded. As seen with his response to Ino.**

 **Again, let me know if the switch to first perspective is better or not.**

 **The song I mentioned I think is a very soothing song and I genuinely do like classic rock. Give it a listen if u have time.**

 **Until next time~**


	6. The Fallen Town of Konoha

**I'm back with chapter 6 and so excited that this story is getting more popular! Warms my heart and absolutely loving the feedback. This chapter starts to get into the nitty gritty. I'm trying to figure out how long it will take without dragging on, so bear with me please. Let me know if you like it! Or review and tell me what you like, or what you thought could've been better, etc, etc.**

 **I fixed some of the mistakes I made, I apologize, for some reason I've been sloppy lately.**

 **Some responses (sorry if I didn't get to them all, I tend to mostly address any inquiries most of the time):**

 **Guest: I have gotten obsessed with ghost adventures, which was one of the inspirations for this story lol if you don't watch it you should!**

 **Aquarian Charm: Sorry! I'm reserving Naruto for later. I really thought about it, but Sasuke is projected to have a really close bond with Naruto as best friends, so he'll be Sasuke's supporting role. He will make an appearance and play a big part though!**

 **SilenceCast: I understand that I have left a lot in the air concerning Sakura's nightmares and her intuition when it comes to ghosts. It's all surrounded by her past. More specifically, the day of her parents death. I promise it'll start to make more sense as the story continues. The purpose is to make you think, and draw you in.**

 **Lolz34453: Her nightmares will be explained in the nearing future, so keep reading!**

 **Kuwaii: Thank you for the feedback! I think I'm going to continue in the first perspective and see how it goes. As for the previous breakup, she and Ino will talk about it a little, but Kenji is only meant to be a catalyst.**

 **Alright, here goes:**

Chapter 6: The Fallen Town of Konoha

* * *

Sasuke was back in his wordless, standoffish composure. His face was like stone as he let us into the manor, not bothering with small pleasantries. Then he disappeared into the depths of the house only minutes after. Sasuke Uchiha continued to be a complete enigma; just yesterday he'd been teasing and sweeping me off my feet with beautiful dancing. Now I could barely get a word out of him.

His moods were hot and cold. Well, more like cool and cold. Yesterday had been the closest to warm I'd seen Sasuke get, and that wasn't saying much.

Whatever was drawing me to him would need to stop. Soon. I did my best to ignore him as we went on to do our business. You'd think it'd be easy, with how little he talks, but the silence made it harder. It gave me more time to think.

But anyways.

Fixing and replacing all the blown wires had taken a lot longer than I or Jon expected. So long that I hadn't gotten to do any more research yesterday and we'd gone home getting almost nothing done.

"They're not even frayed or broken apart," Jon said, confounded as he inspected them.

I wasn't a technical expert; that's why I had Jon and Thomas, but it sounded atypical for wires just to stop working. Which as far as I knew, wasn't possible. There was no evidence of wire breaks or blows. They weren't old wires either; they'd been bought maybe a couple of weeks back.

Since that night I had a sneaking suspicion that the unknown black configuring mass was the reason behind this. Now I had no doubt. Ghosts were essentially balls of energy, and a few even knew how to manipulate and convert energy around them. It explained why the cameras had shut off; certain ghosts were known to have the ability to drain lithium batteries. Those ghosts were old and knew how to feed off of its surrounding negative ion energy. Knowing this worried me even more.

There was still a lot of research to do before our first investigation tonight; right now I was walking into this case blind. The history of the Uchiha entrusted to us by Mikoto had been thorough. However, the actual history of Uchiha manor was limited. Maybe the closest town would have archives or old newspapers that would give me some inclination as to what to expect.

Ino bounded in as I plugged the computer into the small generator we'd dragged into the room. Thomas, Jon and I were setting up a base room in a small study hidden away in the corner of the first floor. She peeked around the corner with a sly smile and another low hemmed tank. Her glimmering blue eyes were searching.

I knew who she'd been hunting for, but Ino had yet to understand the aloof Sasuke Uchiha. Surprisingly, his cold shoulder and blatant rejection yesterday hadn't phased her. If anything, she tried harder to get his attention.

As much as I didn't want to watch Ino flirt shamelessly with him, I had to find him so I could ask him where the closest town was. The problem was, Sasuke was a regular Houdini. He came and went as he pleased, and once he left it was impossible to find him.

The even stranger the thing was that it was always random and out of thin air. I'd searched the house a couple of times trying to find him, only to come up with nothing. But he was filthy rich and his own person; he could come and go as he pleased.

Probably trying to evade the lust filled blonde that clung to him. Or the whole gang honestly. He wasn't too keen about anyone poking around in his family's things.

"Oi! What are you doing?" A deep, demanding voice called.

A shiver ran up my spine when the baritone of his voice hit my ear drums. Speak of the devil.

Sasuke was standing in the opposite doorway as Ino (probably intentional). Ino noticed immediately, fluttering her long lashes as she spotted him.

My hand twitched.

Sasuke's face was impassive, but his frown was deep as he scanned the room. Jon and Thomas had brought in a fold up table and chairs, which stood out against the old aristocratic furniture. The laptops and screens were a stark contrast to the satin of the canape and leather of the antique books. All of us seemed out of place in our jeans and converse in the grand Uchiha household.

"We call it a base room, kind of like a safe room to keep all our tech at," Jon replied, standing up from his chair to properly regard Sasuke. Sasuke stepped forward and inspected all of it, gliding his fingers against the top of the screens. He was in a dark crimson vest, dress shirt, and black pants. He always dressed in pristine clothes, but he didn't look like just another elite business man. He was wrapped in sophistication and elegance, and held the same classic aristocratic air as the house we stood in. He was a walking visual of good old' strong family tradition the Uchihas had managed to keep.

"Sakura?" A voice penetrated my daze.

"Huh?" I snapped out of my thoughts as Thomas called my name. I inwardly curse at being caught spacing out. My eyes darted away from Sasuke, avoiding his gaze.

"Didn't you want to ask Sasuke something?" Thomas suggested. I wanted to smack that amused grin off his face. It wasn't often that I was caught distracted, but it was even more embarrassing to admit what had caused my mind to wander.

My eyes flickered to Sasuke.

"Right." My voice wavered, but only slightly. I cleared my throat. "Where's the closest town around here? I'd like to get an idea of the history of this place before tonight." I asked.

Sasuke furrowed his brow as he absorbed my words. He was never tense, but his shoulders always appeared to be slightly on edge whenever I saw him.

"I doubt they'd have anything; the Uchiha are very private." He quipped.

My sweaty hand rose and pinched the bridge of my noise. I let out a sigh. Always so secretive, always so difficult.

"Well, unless you can give me all the answers for 200 years of history, I need to go somewhere that does." I bellowed. My embarrassment from earlier waned as I dared to stare him down. He glowered down at me. Sasuke was a blank canvas; there was no telling what was hiding behind the stretched white screen. But there were a few moments, as tiny as they were, where I saw swirls of color and strokes of emotion.

Most of the time it was an annoyance; like right now. It's still something, though. Right?

He broke his glare and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh.

"There's a town about 10 minutes south of here." He admitted grumpily.

"Then that's where I'll be for the next few hours." I piped.

I was a step closer to uncovering some secrets, pertinent to the mystery that lay before me. I moved to leave the room and get my jacket when something captured my attention. I caught Ino out of the corner of my eye as I went to leave. She crept toward Sasuke's side, pushing her chest forward just slightly, hard to see to the untrained eye.

I turned away so no one could see the ends of my lips tug down.

"And Ino's coming with me."

Ino halted in her movements and gaped at me.

"I don't wanna sit in a library all day! I, uh, was hoping if Sasuke would give me a private tour. I haven't even seen half the place, and Sasuke knows it best." She flirted, looking up at him through her lashes. She pushed her arms together, jutting her cleavage out even more.

I watched Sasuke intently; ever so slightly the corners of his mouth twitched downwards, and I noticed a single dark eyebrow twitch. However, Sasuke made no move away from her, and it did little to settle the weight in my stomach.

"I'm busy." He retorted, turning his back to her and blowing her off completely. He went back to inspecting the computers without another glance in her direction.

The weight in my stomach faded, but the residue clung to my intestines.

Ino answered with a disgruntled huff and slid by me through the doorway. I followed after her into the parlor, where she snatched her jacket off the coat rack. I grabbed my maroon hoodie and slung in over my head. Ino's pout was still there as she zipped her periwinkle jacket up just enough to cover her chest.

"Finally," I teased as we walked towards the door, "I was worried they were gonna pop out soon." Ino sneered at me, not amused, but she played along.

"Don't hate cause I have boobs and you don't." She stated. She gave me a small smirk as she opened the driver's door, pretending to hold it open for me.

"you're only a size bigger than me," I muttered, grimacing at her as I walked down the steps and out towards the car.

"I know how to use them, though. But hey; your forehead is so large that it distracts people, so they don't notice."

"Wearing small shirts and pushups bras don't count, Ino-pig," I replied. I ignored the little quip about my forehead. It had been one of my biggest insecurities in childhood. I liked to think I'd grown into it. Kind of.

"Whatever," Ino said, "what's got your panties in a bunch?"

She gave me a questioning stare from the passenger side of my car, her eyes squinting at me from over the roof.

I shivered as a cold breeze brushed against my face. It was late September now, the time of the year for the transition of seasons. One day it was 70 degrees and sunny, and five minutes later it miraculously dropped 20 degrees. But fall weather always seemed to calm me-

"Sakura?"

-Thomas always associated autumn with crunchy leaves that got mushy and the never ending smell of pumpkin spice lattes. I thought of it as sweater weather and warm smells of hazelnuts, vanilla, and pumpkins (regular pumpkins). It was the season of death, before the renewal. Shedding the old to reveal what laid underneath like shedding snake skin, or a curtain-

"Is this about Sasuke?"

"No," I said too quickly. Damn. Couldn't a woman enjoy the changing weather while purposefully ignoring her best friend in peace?

I hopped in the car, and Ino followed suit.

"Although you're excessive flirting isn't professional, at all."

Ino waved me off and eyeballed the trees outside as I pulled out of the driveway and down the giant hill.

"Doesn't matter anyways. The guy hasn't given in once, or so much as spared a single look down my shirt. And these puppies are hard to miss."

I laughed as I pulled out on the highway, heading south as Sasuke instructed. My grip on the steering well loosened and my shoulders relaxed as she whined.

Ino tapped a finger on her chin in thought. "Maybe he's gay." Ino pondered.

I snorted.

"Not looking down your shirt doesn't mean he's gay, pig. He just doesn't like you." I remarked. I kept my eyes glued to the road, but in my peripheral, I saw Ino cross her arms in front of her chest.

"Interested or not; everybody looks." Ino accused.

"Nu uh. Maybe Sasuke's just a gentleman." I offered.

I felt Ino's glare burn the side of my face as if to say 'seriously?'

"Your understanding of guys suck Sakura," Ino stated, and I went back to ignoring her as we drove on. She kept her arms crossed and sunk in her seat.

* * *

20 minutes later

"Geez, where is this place?" Ino whined, smashing her face against the window. So far we'd been driving for 20 minutes with no town or buildings in sight. The overcast sky made the trees dark hunter green and blocked off anything hiding behind them.

"Didn't Sasuke say it was only 10 minutes away?" I thought out loud.

Maybe he'd been wrong. I should've asked for towns name so I could put it in my GPS. I ordered Ino to pull out her phone and pull out a map of the area. She did so, and a loud ding came from her phone.

No service. Crap.

I was ready to do an illegal donut in the middle of the road and turn around before Ino stopped me.

"Wait! I think I see it!" She exclaimed, pointing off into the distance.

Sure enough, the trees began to fall away, and we passed the city's sign. We entered the small town, the sign branding it Emberson.

It was small and quaint with a cute little general store on the corner of Main Street. The ever impending storm looming over the forest where Uchiha manor was didn't reach the homes here. Some puffy white clouds faded the sun, not at all dark like the ones just north of here. People were out and about walking the streets with it being Saturday afternoon. They appeared cheery and friendly without a care in the world.

"Well, not the Gettysburg I was expecting," I exclaimed.

Ino gave me a solemn look. "Let's just hurry up and get this over with; I studied enough books in college to cover for life."

The small town astonishingly had a library in a historical museum just off Main. It was only good news for us; hopefully, they'd have something on this massacre at the Manor.

Finding the building was easy, it was a small brick establishment with its name out front. As we walked in the door, the first things I noticed were the books and relics littering the ground. Shelves of literature took up the walls, and a mountain of them piled in the middle of the room. I swerved past a mound towards the wooden counter with an old bronze bell. I smacked the button down once. I looked around, trying to find anyone that worked here.

Nothing.

"Hello?" I voiced, turning my back to the counter and looking for any sign of life.

"Oh! I'm here!" Ino jumped as a voice came out from behind her, buried in a pile of books. Hardcovers started to shuffle and move, and out popped a frantic woman as if she'd awoken from the dead. She had chestnut blonde hair, frizzy and disheveled like her thick rimmed glasses.

Everything about these investigations always had to be strange.

* * *

"There isn't much, but I did manage to find some of the things you requested." Naomi, the historian, said, as she used her index finger to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

She dropped a small cardboard box on the table where we sat. Dust flew as it hit the wood, assaulting our mouths and eyes. As I peered inside, I noticed that the box only contained a few newspapers and some old records, along with some other miscellaneous items.

Ino's grimace lessened when she looked at the few contents, happy that there wasn't going to be so much reading, while mine only got bigger. With all the talk about the Uchiha Manor, I'd expected stacks upon stacks of newspapers and conspiracy theories about the massacre. Where was all the hysteria surrounding this tragedy? A whole family had been murdered by a serial killer they'd never caught. The media always ate that shit up. There should be dozens of newspapers and reports in here.

Naomi sat down opposite of us as I pulled out an old newspaper dating back to 1802, "Arrival of the King of Fire and Iron."

The picture was grainy, and the paper was crumpled and stained, but I could see the stature of a man standing in front of a new looking Uchiha Manor. He was tall with long spiky hair running down his back and donning a very traditional Japanese garb similar to what samurais used to wear. He had old plated armor collected at his waist, as well as armlets strapped to his forearms. Even from a distance, he looked like a dangerous man, with set eyes and his arms crossed in front of him. His scowl seemed permanent, and his face was demanding. A man of power no doubt.

Definitely Uchiha blood running through his veins.

"That's Madara Uchiha, an immigrant from Japan who built Uchiha Manor and was the first of his clan to come to America." Naomi recited, pointing to the stubborn man. He only looked in his late twenties, but something about him was off; a man who'd hardened by things that others his age shouldn't experience.

The next newspaper clipping her pulled out showed Madara in a cotton suit and his hair pulled back in a low ponytail. He had his hands buried in his pockets, talking to a man with a dirty face in overalls. Madara seemed relaxed in this picture, some of the hardness had fallen away with time. The harsh lines on his face were almost nonexistent, and his lip lightly flipped upwards as if he was enjoying himself. Behind them was a tall brick building that I couldn't make out, and the print was too faded to read. America must've done wonders for him, made him happy. Mikoto had said that people were afraid of him, though...

Naomi went ahead and filled in the missing information.

"This is a couple of years later when he first expanded the Iron company the Uchiha's own; in a village hidden in the leaves."

"You mean Konoha?" Ino interjected.

"That's our hometown," I added, somewhat confused. This place wasn't anywhere near our city.

She crinkled her nose and gave us a funny look. "It's probably named after this town; I know the Uchiha's got so big they established their company in a different town after this one burnt down-"

"It burnt down? When?" I asked, wide-eyed. I'd never heard of this before!

"Uhhh," she flipped through some papers. She pulled one out of the stack and flipped it to show us the city hall on fire. "1910. After it burned down the Uchiha family moved their industry north."

Why hadn't that been included in my research?

It looked as though Konoha had been an immigrant town, mostly for Japanese/Asian decent. A majority of the immigrants worked for the Uchiha Iron company; it's what made the Uchiha's so rich. As a trade off, they offered jobs to many immigrants, keeping them afloat and out of poverty in a new world.

Is this what the town had become once the Uchiha main line had vanished? Deserted and burned down to the ground never to be seen again? Covering all the history, just buried beneath the ashes.

Out flipped another picture, taken ten years later.

I almost gasped at the stark contrast of the Madara in this picture compared to the other. He looked riddled with angry lines and held furious eyes. All that pent up anger was back and increased ten fold with age. He was with a group of men that looked to be his kin at the corner of the bar and the title read "Trouble in town for the Uchiha."

"What does that headline mean?" I asked. My brows crinkled as I looked closer; was it possible to sense danger from a little picture? The characteristics of a serious and grim man had turned lethal right on paper. The men sitting with him, rather, more so away from him, looked angry but anxious at the same time. They feared him, and I had a feeling they had a good reason to be.

"Those men are all members of the Uchiha clan. I believe the article goes on to say that they were arguing about who should own the company. A lot of disagreements and tension started to break out within the clan. They were trying to get Madara to pass it on to some of the younger men. But he wouldn't do it from what I can defer," Naomi explained. "But beyond that, there aren't any details as to what happened. Madara disappeared not even a couple of months later, though no one knows why."

It seems as though Madara would be a factor that I'd have to consider in this case. Hearing this and what Mikoto had told me, these strange happenings went back more than a hundred years, and disappearances were a recurring event. I almost needed to write all this down to keep track of all the outliers.

"What about the massacre in 1905?" I asked. It was the whole reason I was here after all.

"Oh! Umm." Naomi flipped through the few papers, having trouble finding what I'd requested. Amidst the shuffling, a flash of blue caught my eye.

"What's that?" My hand was reaching before I finished my sentence, and it dove into the box without a second thought. Pulling it out, I discovered that it was a folded up blueprint of the manor! Without another word I unfolded it and laid it out. It was a very basic layout of the mansion's two floors, probably the early stages of the floor plans. This was perfect! I could use this for tonight when we do our investigation. It would make navigation that much easier.

Naomi ignored the blueprint and continued her task at hand.

"Aha!" She announced, and dropped another article clipping on the Manor's design, blocking my view. I almost pouted at her blatant disregard but chose to keep it in. It wasn't like she'd done it on purpose.

The report was lackluster and disappointing; a single picture of the house and the same family portrait, too small to make out any discerning characteristics. 'Damn.'

In big black letters, the title said: "Uchiha's Perish: Killer Still at Large."

"That's it?" I asked, appalled at the mediocrity of coverage. It was barely half a page, and there was no picture! It should have been the story of the century to these people, and yet it had been reported so poorly.

"Well, there was a couple of follow-ups before the town was set on fire and deserted..."

She pulled out two more. The headings read: ' Uchiha survivor and sole heir loses mind, shuts Uchiha Manor's Doors.'

The second read: 'Sasuke Uchiha Missing, Family Mourns the Loss of the Last Member of the Main Family.'

"After that, the Uchiha's packed up and went North to where they founded the largest Iron company in the US. A lot of workers followed since the Uchiha's had treated them so well in their jobs."

She said it with such a lazy tone. As if the story hadn't just ended a tragic history. Naomi was still smiling, though. Perhaps working here and picking up years of big headlines had desensitized her.

One thing I was sure of, people handled terror in their own twisted ways.

"That's it?" Ino questioned. Even she could sense the irregularity of the poor upkeep of the Uchiha's.

"I'm afraid so," Naomi replied and adjusted her glasses again.

"What about the bodies, forensic pictures, any records of police reports?" I probed. The lack of information just didn't add up to me; a famous family murdered and there's only one measly article? An heir disappears out of thin air, bodies never found, a killer at large. It's as if they tried not to cover it.

"Sorry, the Uchiha are very hush hush, if the paper or local police were ever involved and allowed to record anything, we'd have it." She offers a dry apology. It's not her problem; it's mine. I'm still at square one, without a lick of evidence to give me any leads. Things were just building up instead of dissolving.

Ino sighs, she's realized that I've dragged her away from her precious Sasuke time for nothing. I notice Naomi give Ino a sharp look as she breathes her sigh, but it's gone quickly. I've been getting conflicting vibes from Naomi since I walked through the door. Like a nervous tick, she keeps touching her glasses and turning away. It's obvious that she doesn't want to be here, discussing this. My intuition starts to tell me that Naomi might not be as sweet as she pretends to be, and now I'm eager to leave.

"Would I be able to copy some of these?" I ask politely. It's best just to cut my losses and go now.

Naomi frowns and hardness grows in her gaze, similar to the look she gave Ino.

"No," She snaps, surprising both me and my blonde companion.

Not even moments after the outburst her eyes clear and she gives us a full smile, her eyes crinkling at the sides.

"It's historic property, were not allowed to copyright or give these documents away freely." She explains, sweet as pie.

Was I dealing with the infamous Batman villain Two-face, or a bipolar woman who forgot to take her meds today? She'd completely changed in a matter of seconds, as easy as flipping a switch.

I could see Ino open her mouth to reply with a bitchy retort, but I didn't need her to unlock a new personality with this chick. My eyes flicked toward the covered blueprints before looking back at Naomi's smiling face. I couldn't even tell if it was real or fake.

I gave her a fake smile of my own.

"Oh, alright. Here, let me help you out." I did my best to sound disappointed as I helped her gather everything and put it back in the box. Ino sat there and crossed her arms. She refused to play nice or negotiate with bipolar terrorists. I did what was needed.

I revealed a conniving smile as we said our goodbyes and drove off.

I had gotten what I wanted.

* * *

"Boom!"

I slapped the paper down, spreading it out on the carpet. Ino's eyes rounded, and she gasped.

"You sticky-fingered bitch, when did you swipe this?" Ino asked laughing. I scoffed.

"I definitely had an ulterior motive when I offered to help clean up," I said and winked.

We were in the room designated as the base where the rest of the gang (Sasuke included) were residing.

"You left for an hour just to swipe some map?" Jon questioned. I looked up and glared at him.

"For your information, I swiped a map for the manor were currently investigating. What have you slackers been doing?" I accused.

Both Jon and Thomas were lounging on the couch, drinks in hand. I sat up and put my hands on my hips.

"I'll have you know we finished setting all the equipment up," Thomas stated matter-of-factly.

"So then everything should be ready for the investigation tonight?" I challenged.

"Of course!" Jon said, feigning hurt, "what do you think we've been doing?"

"Sitting on your asses and drinking beer?" I guessed sarcastically.

"Well, you're not wrong."

"Whatever, just show me what you got."

Jon cracked his knuckles and smiled. He flipped on his laptop, and the multiple screens flickered on. The screens were showing different points of view from the six main areas and halls we'd previously discussed.

The three furnished rooms had swivel cameras just above the doors. Both main hallways on the 2nd floor had a stationary camera, staring down to the end. The only camera on the first floor was a bird's eye view of the foyer.

Sasuke shifted in the corner. He'd been sitting there quietly, listening to us bicker. He was busy checking out all the gadgets and blinking buttons in the room at first, but he'd moved just enough to where he could peer down at the blueprints. If my mind was reading the messages my eyes were sending correctly; I saw as his eyes widened a fraction in genuine surprise.

He may be good at hiding his intentions, but I've always been a fast learner. I know how to pick up the shift of a person's disposition, and while it is slight with Sasuke, it's still there. He should feel no reason to hide it; it's only natural to have a piqued interest in your family's history. But a lack of reaction was starting to be a standard expectation from him.

 _'I wonder if he thinks all this is strange; what we do.'_

He had yet to complain the last five minutes we'd been here. Slowly, it felt like he was getting used to us as well. That was good news for us because it'd be easier searching this place with someone who knows the layout when we split up.

* * *

It wasn't exactly the dream team, more like a hodge-podge breakfast club type of group.

Sasuke was our loner, obviously. He would resume the title of jock as well, cause lets' face it, Jon and Thomas could only be labeled nerds as far as I'm concerned. Ino was the Princess, which I'm sure is the perfect role for her. That left the psycho part, and me. Which is fine with me, because I am a little screwy and in the end, I get super-hot and get the guy anyways.

I would've rather been the Scooby-Doo gang, but we didn't have a dog.

"What are you doing?" Thomas whispered harshly.

He'd pulled me inside the dining room away from everyone else, and now we were arguing in hushed voices as Ino probably groped Sasuke.

"What do you mean? We need Sasuke-"

"We have a map!"

"This place is too big just for you and me, and now we have Ino. We need as many people as we can to investigate this place, and there's only one map."

"But we never take a client in on an investigation."

"Well, we do now!"

"But why do I have to go with him?"

"Because I'm not gonna pair him with Ino, how cruel would that be? And I can't put you and Ino together because you'll just fight the whole time and get lost."

"This is about your little crush isn't it?"

"No; is this about your inferiority complex with him?"

"No!"

"Then it's decided!" I huffed.

I stalked back into the control room, and Thomas followed behind me pouting the whole way. Jon was at the computer screens, typing away at whatever. Sasuke was standing behind him and observing. He seemed fascinated with what Jon was doing. And Ino sat on the sofa facing the other way, moping since she was being ignored. I snatched the map from the table and cleared my voice to get their attention.

"Okay, Ino and I will take the East end. Thomas and Sasuke, you'll take the West end. Jon will stay at the base to watch the monitors and alert us of any activity near us. Start with the first floor and then work your way up. If you find anything, call it in." I instructed.

Jon gave me the earpieces which I handed out to everyone.

Sasuke turned his around, inspecting it, and then stared at me.

"How do I wear this?" He asked, turning away slightly. It was understandable; Ino had broken the first one she'd ever worn. The curvature of the loop as designed to fit your ear, but it is hard to get on.

Without thinking, I plucked the earpiece out of his grasp. I reached up, and too late did I realize what I was doing. I was about to place my hands on Sasuke's ear, my fingers brushing against his hair.

I expected him to pull away, at least out of surprise. One thing I learned about Sasuke's interactions with Ino is that he did not like being touched, and he never initiated contact with anyone.

But he didn't. He sat there patiently as the rubber folded over his ear and the earpiece settled into the canal. He didn't flinch as the back of my hand brushed his cheekbone. He remained perfectly still, almost as if he was nervous too move. When I finally came to my senses, I pulled away like my skin had been scorched. And in a way it had been, along with deeper parts of my body.

Danger zone.

"Alright let's go!" I walked out of the room quickly, grabbing Ino's hand and dragging her along with me into the depths of the dark manor.

I flicked on the flashlight and threw the camera at Ino. She fumbled with it, but got a solid hold and turned it on.

"Turn it on night vision," I instructed her.

She turned it around and pressed buttons before I heard a small "aha!" come from her lips. Then she mumbled, "Why do we have to do this in darkness? So ghosts can't see us?"

"The opposite actually; so we can see them. Spirits often manifest themselves through energy and they give off light. Usually, it's like a little orb of light passing through the air, so keep a look out." I told her. We crept through a few rooms in silence. So far nothing out of the ordinary was revealing itself, but it was routine to go through every room. There was a wariness in the dining room, and a growing itch in my hand to touch something. But what? I couldn't tell, and as far as I knew there was no real basis for it, so we kept moving. It went away after a couple of minutes as we continued.

Within no time, we cleared the first floor and continued up the back steps in the kitchen. They're old, and it scared Ino when it creaked under my first step, but it's not paranormal. I felt like I might've rushed the first floor. I'm excited to search through the second floor because it has a livelier aura, especially the furnished rooms. The blue and red rooms are on our side, and I haven't gotten the chance to check them out yet.

Over an hour into in and I'm a little disappointed. We've come up with nothing so far.

"Is this place even haunted?" Ino asked in a bored tone. She held the camera lazily, and scowl mars her face.

I know she's disappointed that she's stuck with me and not Sasuke, but I can't bring myself to care. In fact, I can feel satisfaction buzzing through my body. Watching Ino throw herself at Sasuke is more irritating than I'd like to admit, but I don't think it's jealousy. At least, not yet. It's the precursor, the early stages, and I hope it never gets past that.

"I might've thought the same," I admit, "but you didn't see the tape yet."

"Well yeah, I guess I just figured it would have that weird, creepy, haunted feeling; it just feels like a regular old house to me."

"There are moments I feel it, the difference, especially in certain rooms. But it baffles me too. It comes and goes, which I've never had before."

"How can you tell?" Ino asked.

I stop in the middle of the hallway and close my eyes. How many times had I tried to understand it myself? This thing I call my intuition. I highly doubt other women's intuition makes them sensitive to dead people.

"It's kind of like…a radar. The goosebumps rise, and I feel the static like there's something hidden there. Bits and pieces of stuff. Maybe a radar isn't the best analogy. More like a metal detector. I can fish out these things when I walk; I feel the history and the story. But when I feel the characters there and the story is still happening, not just remains, I know there's something more."

"…Woah."

"Yeah I know. Weird right?"

"What kind of stories have you picked up on our couch then?" I can't help but burst out laughing, crinkling my nose in disgust.

"Ugh, Ino. It doesn't work like that."

Ino laughed along with me until we realized we had to remain quiet. I took the lead again as we continued down the East hallway.

"Can you do your weird feely thing with living people?" Ino whispers from behind me.

"Nah, otherwise I would've known how much trouble you would get me into." I teased.

"You could do it when we were kids then?"

I couldn't stop the instinctive frown mar my face, and my heart weighed down for a moment. It had been so long since… It still affected me so strongly. I'd mourned them years ago, but you couldn't put a timeframe on how much you miss someone.

"No, it came to me when my parents died." There was no reason to lie to Ino; she'd been on my side since day one.

Ino became silent, and the teasing atmosphere dissipated. I sighed; did my parents have to remain a taboo? Ino must be worried that as soon as someone prods, I'll flee back into my shell like some hermit crab. This shell had grown too small for me, though; I needed to move on. Something continued to hold me back, but I don't know what to blame.

Someday, soon I feel, I'll take the leap.

"It's okay Ino," I told her quietly. But I think it was more for myself. I felt the weight of her hand fall on my shoulder. She gave it a light, reassuring squeeze, offering a quiet comfort. I placed my hand over hers and turned to show her a small smile. I needed to let her know I was okay, and to some extent I was.

We continued, and the weightlessness around us didn't come back.

Static prickled at my feet as I passed a closed door.

"Was this door open?" I tried the knob, and it didn't budge. I scowled. There was something behind this door; I could feel it.

"I thought you knew your way around this place?" Ino asked.

"I thought so too; I studied this damn blueprint for hours. The manor is so big, though. It looks different on paper." I responded.

I kept walking, but I planned to come back. There was a story in there, still rolling like tape reel. Broken and repeating, over and over.

We hit the end of the hall, and I just wanted to kick the wall. Still nothing and it was almost 3 in the morning. But that feeling had come back, right here. The cycling vibe of a story somewhere past this wall. Something wasn't right. The old wallpaper and ceramic vase didn't fit here.

"There's supposed to be a door here." I murmured, leaning in and squinting my eyes.

"What?"

"There's supposed to be a door right here, I swear. I remember seeing it on the floor plan." I clarified. I whipped out the map, but even with the flashlight, it was hard to make out in the dark.

"Maybe it was an early draft, and they scrapped the plan." Ino offered.

"Maybe," I agreed, but she didn't feel the spikes of energy coming from that wall. I reached out; there was an old oil painting of spring flowers in a vase. More flowers, just like every painting in this house. But they were daisies. All the others were dark pigmented violets and cosmos and hydrangeas.

My fingers just skimmed the wall, and it was like a lightning bolt shooting out across my fingers. It crept down my spine and tingled all the way to my toes. I had a strange sense of déjà vu, hadn't I felt a similar jolt downstairs somewhere?

"Sakura?"

"We'll just go back for now." I relented. There was something here and _not right_. It couldn't be reached. I'd have to wait until it revealed itself.

Ino didn't bother to argue with me as we turned around. I was a little agitated; this house was being such a tease. Where was the activity we'd seen last time? The black mass, floating around the corridors. The floating form that had blown our equipment. Hopefully, Thomas and Sasuke were picking up _something_. Knowing Thomas though, he'd bolt the other way and Sasuke was probably more stubborn than any ghost. They'd be scared of him.

I clicked the button on my earpiece to turn on the communication.

"Thomas, come in. You guys find anything yet?"

The static cackled for a second, and then his voice came through.

"Absolutely nothing!" he responded in an all too cheery voice. "Although I've managed to lose track of Sasuke. And he's not answering on the com."

I could see Ino pout out of the corner of my eye.

"How do you just lose a human being Thomas?"

"He's so quiet, like a pet goldfish or a porcupine. He was leading the way, and I heard something behind us, so I turned around to check it out. I turn back around, and he's gone. Must've kept going. I'm sure I'll catch up to him." Thomas replied.

My eye twitched at his relaxed tone, but let it go. Sasuke was disappearing again, though…

"Interesting…" For now, I would keep my suspicions to myself. But eventually, Sasuke would answer my questions.

"Let's head back to base now, nothing's gonna happen here," I said dully.

I racked my brain for possibilities or things we could've missed. I needed to gather my wits as we regrouped, sans Sasuke. I stalked back down the hallway heading towards the stairway, lost in my thoughts.

 _Creaaaaaaak_

Ino's arms shot around my waist and squeezed the life out of me. The combined sound and Ino's reaction caught me off guard, and I jumped a foot in the air. Ino was shivering, so hard that my body was vibrating from it.

We were rooted to the spot as the door a couple of feet away slid open, right in front of our eyes.

* * *

 **Dun Dun Dunnnnnn**

 **I'm sorry for taking so long to update! My job is long and tiring, and pretty darn shitty at times. But I'm pushing through it so I can make some serious dough. I thought after I graduated college it'd be so easy to nail a solid job right away.**

 **Ha. No.**

 **So anyways, as an apology, this is a longer chapter. Cause I love you all. R &R**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Otherwise there'd be way more sasusaku moments. Just sayin. Love you bye.**

 **Gettysburg is a city known for hauntings.**


	7. Trapped

**MERRY CHIRSTMAS! I know it's a couple days after, but viola! Since Christmas was on a Sunday I waited to update until today, since it was the holidays and such. I apologize that my updates have been more sporadic lately. Time gets away from me sometimes, but I try to be consistent. I've also noticed that for some reason, I've been letting grammatical errors slip past my usually careful eye. I've been diligent to catch and correct them, but with reading the same words over and over again it gets difficult. So if you notice any,** _ **please let me know**_ **. Sometimes fresh eyes have an easier time catching them, and I won't be offended if you do.**

 **Reply Section:**

 **Adelaide leichhardt: Will Sasuke have supernatural powers? ...probably. Maybe. The real question is: to what extent will they be?**

 **Guest: Ah! A fellow GAC fan. Warms my heart. I hope to go to Vegas one day and visit Zak's haunted museum.**

 **I really love that everyone's starting to develop their own theories, it shows that ppl are getting into it and that's what I love! That's what mysteries are built on, so I'm glad I've been accomplishing such, and I hope I continue to.**

 **Brace yourselves. This chapter is long and loaded.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

 **Chapter 7: Trapped**

* * *

Ino's body froze behind me, fisting the back of my shirt like a child. A rush of adrenaline ran through me, but I wasn't scared, only cautious. I'd grown used to old haunted houses. Prowling around in the dark in a stranger's home with invisible creatures had desensitized me, but only to an extent. One never stopped being weary of the darkness.

It was the same door I had stopped at earlier where'd I'd gotten a strange vibe. It had been jammed or locked when I twisted the knob, but now it'd just swung open on its own in front of our eyes. I turned my flashlight towards the entrance trying to look in, but I couldn't see anything from the hall.

I knew it; there _was_ something behind that door. Now to find out what it was.

We approached cautiously. I took slow and steady steps, forcing Ino to come with me since she wouldn't let go of my shirt. My skin prickled as we crept closer, the hairs on my arms rising higher with each step. Ino clenched my shirt tighter, balling it up under her fists. She let out a small whimper. I turned and put a finger to my lips, nonverbally telling Ino to stay quiet.

My spine was vibrating, either from my nerves or because Ino was shivering so hard I could feel it on my back.

Here we were, so close all we had to do was lean over and peek inside. Our hearts were hammering so loud that I could hear both. Even if I were calmer in the face of the unknown, my body would always react to danger. It was instinct.

I took the initiative. With a deep breath, I quickly shot my head forward and around the wooden frame to look inside. I gasped.

The room was almost bare! Just a covered lamp and a giant oak desk. It was just like all the other empty rooms in the hall. My eyes narrowed intently, confused and trying to find anything out of the ordinary. There had to be _something_ , why else would it be locked? Frustration coursed through my body. And just when I thought I'd gotten closer to the truth.

Ino snuck a peek into the room, placing a hand on my shoulder and leaning forward. She must've realized that nothing was going to jump out at us and yell "boo!" I felt her move from behind my body so that she stood next to me. She didn't share in my disappointment. If anything, she was relieved. The anticipation just moments before ebbed away.

I swore I felt something pull me here before, but now it was like all the pent up energy had decimated. Hardly at the level of anything paranormal. Just like that, I'd lost the scent. It wasn't like spirits were immobile. Quite the contrary, they moved constantly, and it was hard to catch them in one spot. I should've known.

Ino's hand unclenched from my body; it relaxed and dropped from my shirt. She stepped past me, confused at my scowl, and tried to get a better look in the room for herself. Panic ripped through me when she took a full stride into the space. As if she wasn't cowering behind me this whole time.

There was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I could feel it again, the rush of static hitting all of my senses at once. Ino was oblivious to it. Otherwise, she wouldn't be walking around so casually. She let out a relieved laughed as she took in the barren room. She must feel ridiculous now, being so scared before. She was trying to cover it up. But you don't just walk in. The unknown territory was always regarded with caution.

A bolt of white lightning shot through my spine again, coming back strong and forceful.

Something's not right!

"Ino!" I quipped desperately. She needed to cross back over the threshold and get out of that room. _Now_. I motioned for her to come back, eyes darting around looking for anything I hadn't noticed. Ino paid no heed to my warnings. She spun around and quirked an eyebrow at me as if surprised by my sudden change in attitude.

"What? Look!" She waved her arms in the air, "There's _nothing_ in here-"

I felt it then. A surge of energy, hot and bristling and invisible to the naked eye.

Before I could blink or warn Ino, the door slammed shut.

I was standing right at the entrance, so when the door violently closed it smacked my forehead. Pain erupted, and stars crossed my vision as I flew back into the hallway. I cursed, hands flying to grab my throbbing forehead. My eyes crunched from the ache in my temples, but I knew the pain would subside. I was more worried for Ino. I willed for my vision to clear as I got up and went for the doorknob, latching on and jerking it. The hard knob wouldn't budge. The hardwood door was locked again, and this time Ino was sealed inside.

My head continued to throb as I pulled at the gold knob; all I could hear was Ino's high pitched screaming, and her erratic banging against the wood. I tried to block out the atrocious sound and covered my ears. I couldn't think straight with all this noise; I had to get her to stop!

"Ino!" I shouted, wincing at my voice, "Stop yelling! Calm down!"

I wasn't sure if she heard me when the banging and yelling didn't stop right away.

"Sakura!" She cried, "Get me out of here!" She sounded desperate and afraid. I couldn't blame her. I'd been locked in a closet once for an hour, surrounded by pitch black and complete silence before Thomas found me.

"Just calm down and tell me what's going on!" I instructed, authoritative but reassuring. The energy pains I was feeling earlier weren't there anymore, but I needed to make sure Ino wasn't in any danger.

I was relieved when she finally stopped banging. "I-I don't know. Just get me out!" She pleads.

"Ino!" I rub at my temples again, "listen! Can you see anything? Do you _feel_ anything in there with you?" I asked as calm as I could with a quickening pulse.

Everything goes quiet on the dark side of the door. I can't tell if it's good or not. Despite my better judgment, I pushed my ear up against the door to see if I could hear anything. A small sniff resounded beyond the wood. Then a quiet, hesitance reply.

"I don't see anything in here; just some old furniture and a large desk." She responded quietly.

"Does anything looked warped or feel...weird?"

 _'For lack of a better term._ ' My mind chided. Even if Ino weren't sensitive, her body would react to strange feelings and energy. The room would feel so heavy she would have a hard time breathing without feeling it.

"I don't think so." She said finally. I sighed in relief. Ghosts weren't always evil; some were just mischievous. They liked to play pranks and scare people. Trying to rile us up, so we wouldn't come back. Or maybe, it lead us here on purpose. Like it wanted to show us something. Something hidden in that room. As rare as that happened, it was a possibility.

I sighed in relief, at least I knew Ino wasn't in any immediate danger. She'd still be shrieking if she was. But we weren't out of the woods yet. I tried the knob again. It clinked and jiggled, but didn't turn. Damn.

"The door's still locked!" Ino whined. I backed away from the door, trying to think. I couldn't leave her in there, but what was I supposed to do? Kick the door down, if I could, and suffer the wrath of Sasuke for destroying his stuff? No, thank you.

"Just look around, maybe there's another way out." I reasoned. A lot of old houses had multiple connecting doors. Maybe she could get into an open room and come out that way. There was a pause. And then a snort. "Just try it!" I demanded.

"Fine!" She said, exasperated. I could hear her feet drag as she shuffled around the room. Her chipper mood had disappeared and with good reason. I shined the light against the door, searching to see if I could pick the lock. No; I'd never been good at that. Ino was, but it wouldn't work on the other side. If the hinges were rusted, I could knock it loose. I might be able to jimmy the screws out without damaging the door. But I'd need a screwdriver, which I didn't have.

Jonathan had one back at base. I'd seen it when they were bringing all the equipment in, but that would mean leaving Ino alone. I didn't want to, but it was our best shot. There was no telling if the door would ever unlock _"on its own."_ She could be stuck in there for hours. And whatever had locked her in there could come back, with less than good intentions. It wasn't like she was going anywhere.

I patted on the door to get her attention.

"I'm going to get you out of there; I'll be right back," I said confidently. Ino's panicked voice rang through the door.

"Wha-no! Don't leave me here! Sakuraaaa!" My fist clenched. She'd be fine, I told myself. I kept going; her shouting became distant as I ran down the hallway.

I darted past the gallery and took the steps two at a time. I landed in the first-floor foyer and hit the ground running. I made it to the study in mere seconds. I burst through the door with no forewarning. Jonathan jumped, his headphones falling off from the sudden jolt. I'd usually snicker at catching him off guard, but I was on a mission.

"Geez, Sakura, don't do that." He said, putting a hand over his heart to calm the erratic beating.

"Sorry," I said hurriedly and dug through the box I'd seen earlier that had some tools at the bottom. I could see Jon in my peripherals looking at what I was doing intently. He leaned forward in his chair and asked,

"What are you doing?"

"I answered without turning from my task, "Ino-trapped-door." I managed to gasp out. Sure, it wasn't a real sentence, but he'd get the concept.

He scrutinized me for a moment and then scooted away.

"I have no clue what that means, just make sure you get it on tape." He said, detached. Typical Jon. I could get mauled, and if it wasn't on camera, then he couldn't care less. "Oh, and if you see Sasuke, tell him to turn his earpiece on. Thomas is freaking out by himself, and I can't find him on any of the monitors."

"Aha!" I exclaimed and waved the screwdriver around triumphantly. Jon gave me a solemn look and sighed.

"Were you even listening?" He asked tiredly. He leaned his arm against the table and turned back to the monitors. I stood up and tucked the screwdriver into my pocket. Perfect! Now I could break Ino out. And there was something else; what was Jon saying?

"Yeah yeah. I'll tell the renegade if I see him." I said offhandedly. I ran back out the door before Jon had a chance to respond. I doubled up the stairs again as I ran up, trying to go as fast as I could without tripping. My legs pumped as I rushed back down the gallery and rounded the first corner of the hall, narrowly missing the wall. I wasn't so lucky with the second corner.

I had just taken in a sharp left around and smacked my head against something large and robust. It squished my nose, and the blow almost brought back the stars I'd seen earlier. My head had just stopped hurting damn it! I stumbled back, but the wall reached out and grabbed my biceps to steady me. I clutched my nose; eyes squeezed closed from the pain.

"Owwww," I whined. And then my eyes bulged. Wait a minute…walls couldn't grab people! My chin snapped up, all pain in my nose and temples forgotten. Eyes as dark and mysterious as the night sky stared back at me with a questioning gaze. Like being caught in a lacuna, Sasuke's eyes were hauntingly beautiful and easy to get lost in their depths. They startled and warmed me all at once.

His fingers brushed against my elbow, and the new contact felt tingly. The sensation brought me back to reality. Sasuke was holding me, and looking at me with a strange look. A light blush broke out on my face, but I hid it with my hands. Why was it so easy to get frazzled around him? His touch was like a trigger for heat to rush to my face.

"What are you doing?" He asked and let go, arms returning to his sides. I rubbed my nose one more time before scratching the back of my head nervously. How to explain myself without divulging that I was planning on tampering with his precious manor? There wasn't anything but the truth. I sighed, preparing for his reaction. Here goes nothing.

"A door slammed on Ino down this hallway, and then it locked when I tried to get her out. I got a screwdriver..to..ya know...unscrewthehingeswithoutdamagingthedoor. I promise." I said the last part quickly, hoping that he wouldn't understand all of it and then he wouldn't get mad. Perfect logic right?

His gaze was blank, trying to process what I'd just said. Then his eyebrows furrowed, and he looked back down at me. If I were a different woman, I would've gulped and backed away in fear. His eyes, even though devoid of most emotions, were always so intense. But my pride wouldn't allow me to do such a thing, so I looked down at my feet.

"Down this hallway?" He asked, and pointed behind him. I nodded theatrically, remembering why I'd been in such a rush. Ino! She must be scared out of her mind! Without looking up at him, I walked past Sasuke with quick steps.

"Yeah. Come on!" I exclaimed, urging him to follow me.

He managed to keep up with my brisk pace, even though I could feel reluctance rolling off him. Was he always in such a bad mood? Perhaps he'd ditched Thomas on purpose; I wouldn't put it past him. Thomas, although we were looking for ghosts, was an oblivious chatterbox. You'd practically have to tell him to shut up every five minutes to get any peace and quiet.

"Sakura-" He quietly called behind me, but I didn't slow down. The door was just ahead, and I was still on a mission. I pulled the screwdriver out, wielding it in my hand like the Holy Grail. I should be strong enough to twist the screws, but now I had Sasuke as backup in case I couldn't. I was just inches away from sandwiching the screwdriver in the top hinge when Sasuke called my name again.

"Sakura!" Sasuke's voice had a natural rumble that gave it an authoritative edge.

His firm tone stopped me, my hand in midair.

"What?" I snapped back. I'd just _told_ him that Ino was trapped. Did he want to keep her in there? I knew she annoyed him, but he shouldn't-

"It's open." He stated matter-of-factly, crossing his arms.

I blinked.

 _"What?"_ I turned to look at the door; I'd been in such a rush I hadn't even looked. He was right. The door was now slightly ajar. The door must've come loose after I'd left. How did I miss that? I pushed against it, and it easily gave way. Well, I felt dumb. Why did I always look so ridiculous in front of him? I took a look inside to check it out. It was the same room alright, but there was no trapped girl in here.

"Shit. Where'd she go?" I voiced, taking a step inside to look around. Sasuke followed behind me but remained in the doorway. I turned to explain to Sasuke about what had happened. He needed to know that I wasn't making this up. He only nodded, taking a look around the room.

"Rooms up here are almost always locking themselves, I'm not surprised this happened. That's why I don't like coming up here." He said. I sighed. Didn't he think it'd be important to mention that _before_? At least he knew I wasn't crazy. I pulled my wrist up to look at the time. Shit. It was almost 4 'o clock in the morning, and this session was about over. Which meant this whole night was a wash. Again.

I wasn't any closer to reaching a consensus. Hopefully, Ino got the door closing on tape. Maybe we'd catch something on film we hadn't noticed. I wanted to check this room out top to bottom, there had to be a reason behind this, but I'd come back when Sasuke wasn't here.

Sasuke was like a brooding Adonis, a quiet masculinity with a gorgeous face. But there was something...off about him. Not in an obvious way, more like a hunch. I wasn't sure quite yet what it was, but until I did I intended on keeping him on a need to know basis. I was sure he was doing the same to me. He was entirely too cautious and mysterious. I couldn't get a good read on him. It didn't help that my mind was always cloudy when I thought of him with things I shouldn't be thinking.

There'd be no harm in finishing my search with him, though. Ino was still running around by herself. I had to find her and make sure she was okay. We'd predetermined that the group would meet back at base if we got split up. Sasuke hadn't followed instructions; I had a feeling he wouldn't, he wasn't the type to play by someone else's rules, but I'm sure Ino would've. She must have taken the back stairs. Otherwise, I would've seen her.

"Come on, let's wrap this up and head back downstairs," I told him, exasperated. He nodded at me and then moved from the door. He walked next to me with his hands in his pocket. He was a quieter company than what I was used to (anybody was quieter than Ino or Thomas), and it was oddly comforting.

"Do you always talk in such a vulgar way?" He asked, startling me. I looked at him dumbfounded that he'd initiated conversation. He started ahead of us, either ignoring my look or not noticing it.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

He took a quick glance at me and shrugged.

"You curse, a lot. It's not very ladylike." He replied smoothly.

I almost snorted, which wouldn't be very ladylike either. What a strange thing to say. Was it possible to say that without sounding snobby? Apparently, with Sasuke, there was. I laughed lightly.

"Well, I don't exactly do it to please people," I told him, "or to be very ladylike."

"I've noticed," he replied humorlessly.

"Well, not everybody is as old fashioned as you are," I said defensively, "I'm my own woman you know." To prove my point, I strode ahead of him; chin held high.

"I never said I didn't like it." I heard him mumble.

I smile tugged at my lips, but I wouldn't let him see.

* * *

Sasuke's footsteps behind me stopped. Confused, I turned around to see if he was still there. If he'd given me the slip like he'd done Thomas, then I'd really be mad. But Sasuke was still there, standing with his head cocked the side as if he was listening. I looked around and strained my ears. Did he hear something? It could be Ino coming back.

I opened my mouth to call to him, but he rose a finger to his lips. I snapped my mouth shut. I couldn't feel anything, though. I crossed my arms in frustration. Finally, I heard it.

Two big knocks erupted from a distance. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I saw Sasuke's eyes flicker to me. The sound came from the other end of the hallway, but they'd been loud and clear. Sasuke turned at the sound, eyes narrowing. A rush of excitement ran through me. I couldn't tell if my body was afraid, or happy that I was finally getting some activity. Neither of us had a camera to document this, but I wouldn't need it. It was just important that we investigate it _now_. Sasuke was already walking towards the noise, faster than I'd seen him go before. I broke out into a light jog to catch up to him. When he stopped all the way at the end, my eyes went wide.

Here it was, that same painting staring me in the face again. The spot that where there was supposed to be a door, according to the blueprints. Shivers ran through me, and I reached out far enough to feel the wallpaper. It felt like sandpaper against the pad of my fingers. Ions condensed and the air around us thickened to an unseen fog.

"There's _got_ to be something here," I whispered, too afraid to say it louder as if it'd all go away if I did.

It appeared Sasuke could feel it too as he reached out to trace one of the petals on the painting. His frown deepened and he gazed intently at it, lost in thought. I should look at the map again; maybe it would clue me in on something. I pulled the folded blueprint out from my pocket. Before I got to unfold it entirely and look at it, Sasuke snatched it from my fingers.

"Hey!" I pouted. He made no move to acknowledge my protests. He did take my flashlight from me as well, using it to see the paper better.

He studied the blueprints; his onyx eyes darted rapidly, trying to trace the map of any faults. He looked up and then looked back down at it. A scowl marred his face. And then he was moving. I stood there in shock as Sasuke grabbed the painting by the sides and pulled it off the wall. Then, he took the small table with the vase and scooted it out of the way. He turned to me and held out his hand.

"Give me the screwdriver," He demanded. I gave it to him wordlessly. He'd just take it anyways. He held the blunt end up and knocked it against the wall.

It sounded like...a wall.

He moved the screwdriver over 2 feet and then did it again. Same result. What was he _doing_? Then, he went dead center of the wall and tapped it. The noise was different, like knocking against wood.

Oh.

"There _is_ something behind it," I breathed.

Sasuke's only reaction was a frown. He turned the screwdriver around, fisting it in his hand, and then thrust it forward. He had poked a hole through to my disbelief. Thank goodness he was doing it and not me, I'd rather not get blamed for destroying property. Then again, it was his property.

He took one hand and tugged. A loud ripping sound rang through the hall as the cream-colored wallpaper tore, leaving a sticky trail as it pulled from the wall. Sasuke continued tearing at it until the door was fully exposed. He took a step back to admire his work. We both leaned forward to look at the exposed object. It was a large sloping door, so flat and smooth that it was impossible to see behind the wallpaper. It was nothing special. It was plain like a board. On the middle right side, there was a gold circle. A keyhole. But there was no doorknob.

"Do you think you can open it?" I asked him.

He felt around the door, trying to find some leverage to open it, but there was none.

"Looks like we're gonna need a key," he murmured. I wrung my hands. I was itching to get past this and find out what lurked behind. I had a brimming intuition and an insatiable curiosity. I could feel it deep in my bones; I needed to get behind that door. At last, I was getting somewhere in this investigation!

"Um, you don't happen to know where it is, do you?" I asked.

He gave me a serious look. "I didn't even know this door was here," Sasuke admitted.

My shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I guess it was a long shot. I'll figure out a way to get in, though." I exclaimed, rallying a new found motivation. Sasuke didn't appear to like it, though.

"I don't see the point." He said earnestly. I pursed my lips. ' _And just when I thought he was cooperating_ ,' I thought. It was so aggravating having to tiptoe around him all the time.

"Yes you do, you just want to preserve your families secrets that I'm consistently trying to uncover. That's why your always here, watching us, right?" I accused, eyes narrowing.

He scowled, taking my glare on with one of his own. His was so much more intense than mine was, but I wasn't going to back down. I was here to do a job, damn it, and he presented himself as a hurdle with each turn. I folded my arms across my chest, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets with a disinterested look. It only pissed me off more.

"I'm trying to _help_ ," He insisted, stressing the word help.

I wanted to believe him, honestly. But I didn't, and my suspicions about him flamed.

"Uh huh," I whipped, obviously not believing him, "I'm going to solve this, whether you like it or not," I promised.

I expected him to get angry, maybe even go as far as for yell at me or try to kick me out. Sasuke seemed to be the type that had a short fuse. Instead, his brow softened. To my furious surprise, an amused smirk rose on his lips. There was that strange twinkle in his eye again. He leaned forward, catching me off guard. I instinctively leaned back.

"You are so annoying, Sakura." He stated directly.

And just like that, he walked away from me.

Okay, keep calm Sakura. Deep breaths. That's it! Don't blush; don't do anything. One more deep breath, I coached myself. I'd never been so infuriated by a man smiling at me before. Well, as close to a smile as Sasuke got. So _arrogant_! I just need to get a grip.

I straightened my shoulders with bravado and followed. I was here for a reason, and until I knew what it was, nothing was going to stop me. Not even Sasuke. I would take his challenge head on. My fists tightened with resolution.

I caught a glimpse of my face as we passed by a mirror on the wall, one of the few decorations left on the second floor. I expected to my face brimming with confidence and determination. But that wasn't what I saw.

Deep scarlet, splashed all the way down my neck. Eyes wide, not the usual bright green but a shining emerald. I looked away quickly and glued my eyes to the floor, hiding my face with my hair.

Damn.

* * *

The debriefing was short, to the point, and disappointing. Jonathan had captured absolutely nothing on the monitors. I was hopeful Thomas had caught something, anything, even if it was a small scratching noise. It turns out after he'd lost Sasuke, he'd walked into a spider web and spent the next 10 minutes fighting a 'bloodthirsty' (his words, not mine) spider. The camera movements were so sporadic nothing was clear. Only minutes after the battery died, and he'd come back downstairs to lounge in the base room. Slacker. We didn't look at Ino's camera; there wasn't any use tonight. She admitted that she'd managed to bust through the door right after I'd left, and she'd all but ran downstairs but got lost for a couple of minutes. No use asking Sasuke either; he hadn't had a camera, and I'd been with him the other half of the night. I bit the inside of my cheek. Our mysterious black mass hadn't appeared either. Ino was right; the place hardly seemed haunted if that door hadn't shut on us the way it did.

We had that secret door at the end of the hallway, but without the key, that was a dead end. All paths at this point were beginning to look like dead ends. I knew this would be difficult. I did. However, there was no reason to get upset. I thrived under pressure and loved challenges. I just needed to rethink my strategy.

I sighed. That wouldn't be happening tonight, though; I couldn't think straight anymore. There was no reason to hurry; maybe I'd figure something out tomorrow when I'd had a proper sleep. I had the rest of the weekend off; plenty of time to brainstorm. Besides, sleep sounded fantastic right about now.

I didn't say goodbye to Sasuke as I walked out the door. In fact, I made a point to specifically not say it. I was still bitter from earlier. He was so infuriating; one minute we're arguing, and then the next it's like he's teasing me. I hated not being taken seriously, which frequently happened since my hair was pink.

' _Tch. Annoying, what did that even mean?'_ My mind growled. Who would like someone as confusing as that? Sure, I wasn't denying that he was good looking, so attractive that I reacted physically to him. But there was nothing beyond that.

' _Not true. He's different around you, and you see it. He's kind to you; in his own way. Kind of sweet actually.'_ A voice in the back of my mind chided. Psh, Sasuke? Sweet? That was stretching it. _'Still in denial.'_ The voice sang. Nope, not dealing with _this_ tonight.

I wrenched open the van's back door a little too roughly, it swinging and the hinges banging. Ino gave me a curious look but didn't say anything as she pushed past me and got in the van. She sat down and covered a yawn with her hand. She stretched her arms lazily and opened one eye to look at me. I was already pulling out my pajamas from my bag.

"So, did you already have a hotel booked or are we gonna go look for the closest vacancy?" She asked.

A sly smile made a way to my lips. Ino's presence had been so sudden, and it'd been such a long time that she'd come along that I'd forgotten to tell her how things worked. And I knew she wasn't going to like it. I'd call it a little revenge, for her forcing herself on me this weekend (and Sasuke).

"Oh, we don't need to go to a hotel. We're sleeping. Right. Here." I said and patted the floor lovingly.

Her jaw dropped.

She shrieked. "What! But…but…how are we all gonna fit in here?"

I pretended to think about it, tapping a finger to my chin. This was too fun, no harm in goading her a little. I replied, "well, not all of us are gonna sleep in here. Thomas and Jonathan are gonna sleep in the car. They were generous enough to give us the van after a little beating." I padded out two sleeping bags, some pillows, and some extra blankets in case it got chilly.

"What about air conditioning? What am I supposed to do in the morning? Like put my make up on and _shower_."

"There's a house right there. We won't need air conditioning in here; it's already cool enough out." I stated, swapping my shirt for my pajama top. I wiggled out of my jeans as she continued to bombard me with excuses.

"What if Sasuke sees me? Does it even have running water? Wha-"

I sighed. "Chill Ino, you're just gonna have to rough it."

"I don't rough it." She huffed.

"Then you shouldn't have come," I emphasized. She went quiet and then grumbled to herself as she changed. An unsettled feeling dug in the pit of my stomach. It'd been a little mean, the way I said it. She was trying to be a supportive friend, I knew. Doing what she thought was right. I couldn't take it back now, though. In the morning, I'd find a way to apologize. We settled in our respective sleeping bags, facing away from each other. It wasn't as comfy as a bed, but my eyes were drooping already. Even though not much had happened, I was exhausted.

"I came for _you_ ," She murmured.

I closed my eyes. "I know."

Sleep took me.

* * *

I would've tried to stay awake if I knew what was waiting for me in my dreams.

I was here again, shrouded in darkness and unable to discern anything. Lost back in the void I was in every time I had that _nightmare_. I already knew what I had to do. I turned, and I _ran_.

It was already behind me; that I knew. But for once it was _different_. I wasn't just running to get away; I was sprinting towards something that hadn't been there before. I didn't know how I knew which direction to go, I just _knew_. There was an unconscious map in my mind leading me east. The chase was frightening, like a terrifying loop, but this time I had a destination.

I was getting closer, somehow. I could feel it. But it was agonizingly slow. I panted hard, but my legs never gave out. No matter how hard I pushed, it felt like I stayed at the same speed. That scared me, because the closer I got to the end, the more distance the creature behind me gained. I risked a glimpse over my shoulder, and for a moment I was almost petrified.

This was the first time I saw it _clearly_. Even in pitch darkness, I could see every detail, every outline perfectly being ingrained.

The face was stiff like stone and crimson, as red as blood. It had protruding rounded cheeks, and two crusted horns were coming out of its temples into sharp points. Black chalk ran down the sides and over the front in an intricate design, curving at the ridge of the cheekbones and eyes. The eyes… The eyes were redder than the face. Profound and menacing, with black swirls inside the middle rings. Inhuman eyes. It had hair as dark as night, impossibly long and whipping around like a thick cape.

I screamed, it was _smiling_. A large, fake smile. Stale white teeth, as if painted.

I had to look away and fiercely push my body to go faster.

What a sinister smile.

I sobbed, gulping down air as if it really mattered. I was so close, so close! I yelped as a single finger scratched down my back slowly, teasing me. Like a predator preparing to pounce. "NO!" I yelled and flung myself forward. I saw it in the darkness; a pair of arms, illuminated by a humming light. So low that I almost couldn't see it. This is where I was going, this was safety! I reached out. My fingers touched a cool hand, and it began to clasp around my fingers and bring me in.

And then I was yanked back by the ankle, falling to the ground with a thud.

I couldn't bring myself to turn and face it again. I kicked blindly and furiously, trying to get some leverage and break free. I cried out as its nails racked over my Achilles' tendon and breaking the skin. One last thrust and I knocked myself out of the creatures hold. All I could do was crawl. I couldn't see the light anymore; where was it!?

I cried out again. "Help! Please!" But it was no use. I'd been caught, and whoever had been standing there had faded away. I couldn't get away it time, and I didn't know where to go. I gathered my knees in my arms, and the tears started flowing. Fear and hopelessness took over.

And then warmth, an incredible light reached out and enveloped me. Relief washed over me, and the tears were clearing away. I leaned back to relax in it's soothing hold. I rose my head, and my peace was cut short.

Only inches away, it sat there. Kneeling in front of me, staying in the void. Its eyes were menacing, but that disgusting smile was still plastered on its face. The creature was panting heavily, nostrils flaring, although his smile didn't falter. And then, to my horror, it was speaking. But I didn't see its lips move once.

"You've been running for a long time Sakura." It was the voice of a man's, the deepest and darkest I'd ever heard. I shivered uncontrollably. A hand came down, soothing to my soul, but the fear wouldn't go away. It never went away.

"But this time, I've got you right where I want you."

My eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"No…NO!" I screamed, scrambling to create distance between us. Then, I got pulled back somewhere. There was laughing in the distance, ringing through the silence like a low resonance wavelength.

* * *

 **I hoped all of you liked it and I look forward to all of my reader's feedback!**

 **Peace out, A town~**


	8. Author's Note: New Chapters Schedule

Hello all! First I would like to apologize for my sudden longer absence. I have been writing, but when life makes changes you go with it. The major reason I haven't been posting is because I have moved into an apartment and don't have internet yet. I tend to work a lot (I landed a job making pretty good money) and I also work nights, so I've been too busy to get anything set up. That, and it's also nice to have solace from the virtual world from time to time. I'm young and still learning on how to balance my responsibilities.

Again, that doesn't mean I have abandoned my stories. I'm actually ahead a good bit of chapters for TBT and Hydrangea, and I think one or two chapters ahead for Rocket Queen that I have yet to post.

So! As part of my apology to my readers, I am going to post weekly in the month of April to catch up on the time I've missed out beginning April 2nd on Sunday. TBT will be first, and then the next day I will update Hydrangea, and then Rocket Queen. Please forgive me and continue enjoying my writing!


	9. Possessed Mistrust

**"My own family wouldn't choose to listen to me, so I took away their choice." - Madara Uchiha**

 **Hello all! Sorry this update was a little later. Ya know, the whole no internet thing at home really makes it hard:p**

 **Anywho, I have a request of all my readers about something: Sasuke's dialect. I'm having a hard time making him sound more...proper. Anyone have a good idea where I could research how people talked from his time period? My google searches aren't that helpful.**

 **I had a reader request to add this to the horror genre. I'm a little fearful of this because I don't know if I'm going to be good at writing straight up horror scenes, and I'm not sure if I can add it since it's already mystery/romance. Thoughts? If preferred I can try to do so.**

 **And now, without anything else to do!**

Chapter 8: Possesed Mistrust

* * *

"Can someone tell me why we're meeting in here and not at base camp?" Jonathan asked as he rubbed his eye.

Jonathan, Thomas, Ino and I were sitting in a circle in the back of Jon's surveillance van with boxes of powdered and chocolate covered donuts planted in the middle. I'd only just gotten up when I rounded all the stragglers here in a secret meeting.

"For secrecy, of course." I clarified, pulling out a notepad and pen from my travel bag. I needed them for important notes for later, in case I was looking over something. Ino looked around as she nibbled on a chocolate doughnut.

"But were missing Sasuke-" She started to say, worried about leaving him out, but Thomas swiftly cut her out.

"There's a _reason_ for that. I don't trust the guy, he shouldn't even be here. I get a weird vibe from the guy." Thomas exclaimed. He folded his arms in front of his chest, brow furrowed. Ino frowned. Jonathan and I nodded in agreement.

"Your right." I conceded quietly. Ino whirled on me in disbelief, throwing the doughnut she was nibbling on aside.

"What!?" She expressed, eyes wide. I looked away from her and sighed. She was blinded by her feelings to really see the picture here. Sasuke was an unknown; a stranger with an icy stare. The more I got to know him, the more human he seemed. And the more suspicious I became of him and his protectiveness about the house. Something didn't add up about what was going on.

"He's _hiding_ something Ino. I know he is. He knows so much about the place and we can barely get a one worded answer from him." I stressed. "It has something to do with why we're here. Haven't you noticed his disappearances? Just out of thin air, he's gone. Where does he go? And he's always watching us closely…maybe he's making sure we don't find anything."

Ino scratched her cheek and thought about my words. "You said before that this place is, like, sacred to his family. Maybe we're the ones not to be trusted, and he's just over protective of the house. As for the disappearances, he does run his own company. I'm sure he's working twice as hard to be in both places at once." She reasoned. It was a good point, but there were holes in her theory.

"I noticed this a while back and I didn't think much about it at the time, but have you ever seen his car out there? Anywhere? We would've seen it parked out front since there's no garage. The trees are too dense to hide anything in the forest, and there's only one way in." I told her. Why hadn't I thought about it more when I noticed it sooner? I'd been too busy making assumptions and focused on the wrong things. Now as I thought about it, these were important questions. How was he leaving? And if he wasn't leaving the property, where was he going? Somewhere we couldn't find him. Hidden.

Like that door at the end of the hallway…

He'd been genuinely surprised when we found that door though, and it was sealed with wallpaper. Maybe he had a different hidey hole. He was the only one that was familiar with the Manor after all, giving us the slip would be easy.

His job occupation was another conundrum. How was he able to be here days at a time when running such a big company? Was he purposefully taking off when he knew we'd be here? How long had he been coming here? I'd met him out back before he knew of my existence; maybe he'd been hiding out here for a while. And now he had people snooping around and he had to protect whatever he'd been doing. But all these were simply theories. Sasuke is innocent until proven guilty, but he's at the top of my suspect list. At this point, he was the only one on my list.

Ino scrunched her face and looked down, trying to find a reasonable argument against mine. However, the more she tried to fight it the more she realized I was right.

"Alright, but I still don't believe he'd done anything wrong." She grumbled. I patted her arm, trying to offer some comfort.

"That's fine. I'm not saying that he's guilty, I'm saying there's a chance he is. And right now we have nothing and this is our only lead."

"I don't get it, I thought we were hunting for ghosts."

"Were looking for a cause behind this 'Uchiha curse'. Mikoto believes it has something to do with the haunting of this place. But, it is very possible that it's man-made. Sasuke could be, oh I don't know, poisoning his own relatives or something."

"Why would he do that?!"

"I don't know, more money? Power? Like I said, we don't have much to go on and we don't really know what he's capable of." I explained.

Ino nodded a silent agreement and sat up. Good. Now that she was on board, we could continue with my plan.

"Okay, here's what we know so far. 1. This place was built by Madara, Founder of Uchiha Corp., who left Japan because of a disagreement after cofounding the most dangerous gang in Japan. 2. Madara disappeared after a fight between him and the branch families. 3. Forward to Fugaku Uchiha, who inherits his grandfather's mansion. He and his family are brutally murdered, but there's no information on it whatsoever. As if it never happened. 4. Fugaku's youngest son, Sasuke, survives but becomes deranged and disappears like his great grandfather." I read off, lifting a finger each time I named an event off.

"And..?" Jonathan prodded.

"And that's it. That's all I could find." I said honestly.

Everyone stared blankly.

"That's not much to go on." Thomas said.

Irritation swarmed over me.

"I _know_ that. Which is why I need to get more information." I took a glance at my watch. It was 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday. Perfect. "In the meantime, I need you guys to watch Sasuke. Resort to sneaking around and following him if you have to. I wanna see where he goes." I ordered. My conscious quivered, it wasn't right to invade Sasuke's privacy. But it had to be done if we were going to figure things out. I steeled my resolve.

I pointed to Ino. "Ino, you'll come with me again," and then I turned and pointed to the boys, "And you two will track Sasuke."

I got two horrified looks in return. Thomas recoiled as if I'd burned him.

"Why do we have to follow him around? Make her do it! She already follows him around anyways." He seethed. He really didn't like Sasuke, did he? But he'd just given me a brilliant idea! Ino opened her mouth to retort, but I beat her to it.  
"Wait. Your right," I turned to Ino who looked back at me innocently, "You've wanted Sasuke to give you a tour right? Ask him again, and _don't_ take no as an answer. Jon can track your movements. As soon as he tries to leave, pretend to let him and drop back with Jon. That'll be more believable. Thomas, you and me are gonna go see Mikoto again."

I looked at the delicious chocolately doughnuts calling my name.

"….after I finish these off." I said, bringing the doughnut box into my lap.

Everybody rolled their eyes.

* * *

"Um, Sakura. We're going the wrong way." Thomas pointed out from the passenger's seat, fiddling with the bottom of his hoodie.  
"No were not. I want to go somewhere else first." I said, trying to remember the way I'd gone to get back to the city.

* * *

The town of Emberson was just as bright and sunny as the first time I'd come here. Less people were out on the streets now that the autumn air was getting chilly, but the few that were out were cheerful. It was like travelling through different dimensions, coming from overcast Uchiha Manor to always peppy Emberson.

I parked on an off road, only a block down from the small historical library where Ino and I had met Naomi. I don't know why I wanted to come here; they barely had any information on the Uchiha. But my body was buzzing, telling me I had to come back. There was something I was missing here. I highly doubted I'd get what I wanted with Naomi's personality changing every 5 seconds, but my body was practically urging me toward the small brick building.

"Why are we here?" Thomas asked as we stepped onto the sidewalk. He zipped his hoody up and stuffed his hands in his pockets to block them from the wind. I followed his example, but only cause I didn't want to be noticed. I didn't want her to see me coming.

"Call it a hunch." I told him. We rounded the corner and crossed the street, only a couple feet from where I needed to be. And then I stopped, eyes widening in disbelief.

The historical museums windows were boarded up, along with the door. Neon yellow caution tape crisscrossed the front of the building, sealing it off to the world around it. Then I saw through some breaks in the boards that the windows were cracked and that the door was smashed in. Like somebody powerful had just kicked it and broke it in two with splinters sticking out.

I ran toward to building, amazed and confused.

"What happened here?" Thomas asked after he caught up. He looked at my gaping face and then took in the broken establishment. He'd taken the words right out of my mouth.

I grabbed the sleeve of a man passing by us, startling the poor guy. He calmed down when I apologized and introduced myself.

"Do you know what happened to this building?" I asked him hurriedly.

Sadness flashed through his eyes. "Someone broke in to the place earlier in the week. The police came by to check it out, but it doesn't look like there was much to go on. I was part of the crowd. They couldn't find fingerprints or anything of value that was taken." He told us generously. He looked like a nice man, clean cut and holding a briefcase that was a little worn. "It's nice you kids are into history, but they shut the place down." He looked apologetic. I thanked him politely, and soon enough he was on his way again. Another bystander, his face already fading from my mind.

I realized I was pouting, with my lower lip jutting as I just stood there. I couldn't believe it, what were the chances?-

Yeah…what were the chances that someone would trash the place when I'd been digging around for very private information? Coincidence? I think not. I was thinking of just hiding my face and sneaking off to the back as Thomas distracted Naomi, but now the front door was sealed. Which meant Naomi wouldn't even be here…

I turned to Thomas sharply. He took one look in my eyes, and horror flashed his face. We'd been doing this for so long that he knew what all my looks meant. And I'd been around him for so long that I knew he wouldn't like what I was about to say. Or do, and make him do.

"Let's break in-"

"No-"

We almost spoke at the same time, with Thomas being a little slower. A silent battle of wills ensued between us, glaring at each other. I knew what he was saying through his brown eyes.

' _It's wrong'_

' _But you know this is connected, nobody will know'_

'I'll _know'_

' _And you know we won't get paid if we don't figure this out.'_

He broke our gazes and sighed. I'd won. He pouted and followed me around the corner towards the alley and back of the building passively. He hung his head. "The things I let you drag me into." He mumbled, and I gave him a sly smile.

The back door was boarded up as well, with a deadbolt keeping any wanderers out. However, the police had overlooked a small window in the corner. It luckily remained untouched. It was under a dumpster, which gave us a boost to look inside. I cupped my hands around my eyes like goggles, trying to get a good look at the inside. It was too dark though, I couldn't see anything.

Next, we checked if the window was unlocked. We grabbed at the bottom and pulled hard, but it didn't budge. Damn. There was nothing to wedge in between the seal to try to unlock it either. That left us with only one option.

I took off my outer layer, my precious green hoodie, and did my best to wrap it around my fist.

"You're not going to. Are you?"  
"What's one more busted window? They'll never know the difference."

 _SMASH_

A word of advice, punching through the window hurt _a lot_ more than I thought it would. I winced, one eye closing, when I pulled my hand back to my body and glass fell to the floor. I shook my hand rapidly, as if I could wave the pain away. Thomas rushed to my side, but I insisted that I was fine. A little adrenaline would make the throbbing go away.

We shimmied through the opening. I laid my hoodie over the broken sill so we wouldn't get cut. Thomas went first, and then he helped me through. I left the jacket, we'd need it there in case we needed a speedy getaway. The inside was pitch dark and the air felt stiff. I felt around the wall until I found a wall switch. I flipped it on, but nothing happened. The power must've been cut off. That was okay. Thomas had brought his flashlight, and I had my cellphone for light.

I flashed my cellphone, took one look around the place, and wished I hadn't.

Everything was in ruins. All of the shelves not connected to the walls had been knocked over, along with all the tables. Any aged Knick knacks had been shattered or broken apart. All the books lay on the ground tattered, as if an animal had ripped through the pages. It looked as if a tornado full of cougars had run through here.

Thomas bristled. "This is messed up."

"Yeah." I agreed absentmindedly. Who would do this? And why? It was just a place full of books. The only thing valuable was the history.

I tugged at Thomas' sleeve, indicating him to follow me. "I need to go to the back room, it's where I saw Naomi get the box of stuff about the Uchiha." He nodded once and followed. We maneuvered around fallen books and tipped over furniture towards an industrial door. I took a deep breath; I really hoped that it'd been left unlocked.

The knob turned all the way and the door pushed open, and creeped into a room full of filing cabinets. The tornado hadn't touched down here, the room was still tidy and nothing was broken. Maybe whoever had broken in to this place didn't know this was here. It was in the very back corner of the building and the door was hard to see. I'd only known about it because I'd weaved my way through to help Naomi carry things.

I went straight for the back rack, looking for any files with a 'U' on it. I went through the whole shelf, but I didn't see anything that had a 'U' or 'Uchiha' on it. I deflated on the spot. Where had she put it? I know there was a box of stuff, I'd seen it with my own eyes. It had to be back here! I kept scanning through the shelves.

I flash of red reflected off my light, and I knew I'd found it.

It was the red and white fan. It was the uchiwa fan. Mikoto had told me it was the symbol of the Uchiha clan and her house was littered with it. "Aha!" I pulled the box out excitedly, and when I lifted it I realized that it was _heavy_. It didn't weigh this much last time. I huffed, and carried it over to a small desk. I heaved it up on to the desk, and opened up the top. I gasped, and then cursed Naomi.

Piles of folders, packed full of papers and pictures. That _bitch_. She must have picked all this stuff out and lied to us. Which meant she knew something of what was going on. _'When I get my hands on her, I swear, I'll-'_ My brain paused when I heard a sharp intake of breath coming from the other end of the room. Looking around, I noticed that Thomas was standing there, in front of a chair with a leg sticking out.

 _A leg?!_

I was behind Thomas in a flash.

"Thomas." I whispered. He made no move to show he'd heard me. "Thomas." I whispered a little louder, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

He whirled before my hand connected.

His eyes were wild with fear, and he was panting erratically. I panicked, trying to figure out what had happened. I reached out again with both hands and gripped him shoulders. I dipped my head and tried catching his gaze. "What's wrong?" I asked. He was acting as if he'd just seen a ghost.

He didn't answer, he just pointed behind him. At the body in the chair.

Horror struck me. It was Naomi.

 _Oh no._

Naomi's dark blonde hair was falling over her face, like a curtain. Her body was slumped unnaturally, limbs spread sporadically. There was no blood, but she definitely wasn't sleeping. I took a better look at her. I found myself kneeling in front of her, a shaky hand reaching out toward her wrist. It was cool, but not cold and rigid like a dead body.

"I don't think she's dead." I spoke, and I heard Thomas sigh in relief behind me.

"Oh thank goodness. I thought I'd found a dead body."

There was something wrong though. She was cool to the touch, but I could feel a faint heartbeat. She didn't look to me like she was sleeping, nobody could sleep slumped over and angled like that. My hand reached out again and wiped at the curtain of her hair.

I recoiled, falling back and landing on my butt. And then I was scurrying back to my kneeling position and pushing her hair out of her face.

Her glasses were gone, but her eyes were _open_. They were glazed over and dull, as if something had faded them. The light in her eyes were gone. She still had a pulse, but those were the eyes of the dead.

"Let's get out of here." Thomas begged. He'd seen enough, and so had I. I didn't want to be here when whoever did this came back.

"Should we, should we call someone?" I asked concerned. Even if her skin was a sickly pale and the light in her eyes had faded, she was breathing and she didn't look in pain. It was like she was under a trance. I snapped my fingers in front of her to see if she'd respond.

Nothing. Shivers ran down my spine. I pulled my shaking hands back and looked at Thomas.

"Who would we call? We've broken in to a crime scene!" He exclaimed. He was right. Whatever she needed wasn't a hospital, and we'd get sent to jail for trespassing, breaking and entering, and tampering with evidence. It would do more harm than good. I could call in an anonymous tip from a payphone later; when we were miles away and safe. "Why would the police just leave her here?" Thomas said, his voice quaking. I flashed my light onto her, looking for any marks or signs of a struggle on her.

"They probably didn't know this was back here." But the robber did know, I was sure now, and he'd done this. He hadn't touched any of the records in here though. Maybe outside was staged, a distraction from what he was really looking for. Keep the coppers preoccupied. Nothing seemed missing in here, so what was he after?

I scanned her right arm, flopped out and bent at an odd angle. That's where I saw _it_.

My cellphone slipped through my fingers.

"What! What is it?" Thomas whispered fiercely. He was bending over me, keeping as close as he could. He was getting more anxious with each passing minute we were in here, and I felt it too. I just needed one more thing. I had to see it one more time and make sure it was what I thought it was. I ordered Thomas to flash his light on her arm, voice cracking. He looked at me weirdly, but did it nonetheless. And then he gasped loudly as I reached down for my phone.

It was the black mark. The one on Mikoto that was killing her. Naomi was sporting a much larger one, like the skin was beginning to burn off like peeling paint.

I flipped it on camera. I struggled to steady my hands for a good picture, and took a snap when it finally focused. I took a sharp breath and looked at Thomas.

"Okay, grab the box and let's get out of here-"

Something rubbery clamped around my wrist.

Thomas screamed, very high and shrill. My head turned slowly, until I was looking down at my wrist. Naomi's pale hand was encircling it, and the rest of her body still lay limp. I yelped, yanking my hand back towards my chest. Her body jerked forward. She let go easily enough, but I got the eerie feeling that it wasn't Naomi. Not anymore. Her head started to rise, the curtain of hair falling away.

What I say made my blood ran cold.

Her eyes were glowing red. Crimson. With black swirls on the outer rings.

"… _I've got you right where I want you."_ Naomi muttered, but it wasn't her voice. It was the deepest, darkest male voice I'd ever heard. Déjà vu ran over me, then paralyzing fear. My screams became desperate, but I couldn't move away. Her eyes locked me to the spot, like they had the power to keep me there. She reached out again. It was happening in slow motion. I cunning smile curled on her chapped lips, her crusted fingers reaching out towards my face.

A book came of out nowhere and slammed across Naomi's cheek, knocking her off her chair and successfully breaking the connection that pinned me there. I leaped to my feet. Thomas was standing there with a heavy encyclopedia, gaping as if he couldn't believe he'd done it myself. He'd knocked a girl out. He had no idea that he just saved me. I knocked the book out of his hands and pushed him.

"Come on! We have to go!" I ordered. He nodded and took off. I followed behind him past the door, but slid back in. I rushed to the desk and grabbed the box, trying to balance it in my hands. The hair on the back of my neck rose as I heard movement on the far side of the room. _'Don't look, just go!'_ My mind demanded.

I darted out the door and towards the broken window.

Thomas had already crawled through, and was peering out it searching for me. I thrusted the box up toward him. He fiddled with it, trying to get a good grip, and then dragged it through. I jumped up, hooking my fingers to the side as he reached back in for me. Our hands clasped, firm, and we both pulled hurriedly. My upper body was out. I was pulling my feet through when the hand inside shot out again, trying to catch my ankle. My black sneaker narrowly made it out of her grasp. My back slammed against the dumpster, and watched in terror as a pale hand started to make it's way out the window towards us. As soon as Naomi's hand passed the window and into the light, she recoiled. I didn't wait to watch anymore. We were scrambling to put distance between us and the building.

* * *

A couple blocks down and we were heaving for air after running for so long. I bent down and put my hands on my knees. Thomas dropped the box and fell to the ground. I tried to process what had just happened. My mind whirled, and tried to grasp any tangible reason for what we'd just seen.

"You didn't tell me she was so…pleasant." Thomas got out in between breathes. I let out a wispy laugh; leave it to Thomas to make a joke in the face of danger. I sat up, my breath getting steady and I looked around. We weren't too far from the car. I wasn't sure if my screams had been loud enough to cause a commotion, but it would look suspicious if we were carrying around library property after it'd been closed down for being broken into.

"Stay here. I'll get the car." I demanded. I jogged down the street and got in the car. I sped off down the highway in a panic. There was silence for a full minutes, the only noise coming from the engine and our rough breathing.

"Are we going to Mikoto's now?" Thomas finally asked. The event had shook both of us, but this job was full of dangerous mysteries. The sooner you knew that, the easier it was to bounce back.

"No. I think we've had enough excitement. And we need to check out the contents of that box." I reminded him, although my mind was far away from him and the box. It was focused on Naomi, or rather, the nasty marks on her arm and the ungodly eyes. Mikoto's mark was almost the exact same, but where had I seen those eyes before. There was a chilling familiarity to them...one that I didn't think was possible.

"What…what do you think that was."

I grim line formed on my lips. "Definitely not Naomi."

A ghost could jump a person's body if they were weak minded. The spirit would have to be strong, and old, in order to learn something like that. Possibly a black mass that I'd seen appear that could drain cameras and blow circuits. A spirit travelling though? I'd never ran into anything like that. Ghosts usually haunted locations. Unless…maybe I'm right and it _was_ …

No. I'd know if it was.

Hearing Thomas's voice brought me back to the real world.

"Are we just going to head back to the mansion then? I was hoping we'd spend some time somewhere that wasn't creepy." Thomas said. Seeing Naomi like that had shaken both of us, going straight back to another haunted location that was most likely connected to current events was making me uneasy at the moment as well. It also made me worried Mikoto, what would become of her, if she got sicker and the mark grew.

Would she become what Naomi was? I didn't even have a name for it.

"We can get some grub, but when we get back you need to hide that box in Jonathan's van." I told him. I needed time to think, food always helped.  
"Why? Base camp is inside." He whined.

"Because Sasuke can get to it there." I chastised, taking one hand off the wheel to wag my finger.

"Oh, right. He's our suspect."

I frowned. Hearing him say thought made me uncomfortable.

"I guess."

Thomas gaped at me.

"That whole talk in the van, and you 'guess' he's a suspect?"

"I don't know if it's right to call him that yet." I defended. The word 'suspect' made him seem all the more guilty and wholly unjust. As far as we knew he could be a victim, once the Uchiha 'curse' hit him.

"We suspect him." Thomas pointed out.

"But, we don't have any evidence." I reasoned.

"You don't need any evidence for suspects, that's the whole point of having them! You're starting to sound like Ino. " He exclaimed. I sighed.

"No, you're right."

Thomas leaned over the middle council, but I couldn't tell what he was doing since I kept my eyes glued to the road.

"I wasn't right when I said you have the crush on the guy, was i?"  
"No!"

I jerked towards him, tilting the wheel a little with me. Thomas had a sly grin and a suggestive look in his brow that I didn't like. I tore my eyes away from him to focus back on the road. But I still felt his stare on me.

Finally, he moved and lounged back in his seat.

"Whatever you say, girl. Just don't fall for the bad guy, that would make things complicated."

* * *

 **I'm sorry this took longer that expected! I thought I'd be able to download it one way, but I wasn't able to so I had to wait until the day at break to post this. Let me know what you all think!**


	10. The Missing Key

**Thank you all for the love I've been receiving! I'm doing my best to keep to my word by updating every week (Even if it isn't back to back). Reviewing and editing just takes more time then I thought it would.**

 **Again, Thank you! Love reviews, tell me what you think!**

 **Chapter 9: The Missing Key**

* * *

Thomas certainly had a way with words, but I wasn't going to let them get to me. There were more important things at hand.

I wanted to see Mikoto right away about the mark we'd found on Naomi's arm, but decided against it. I still had nothing to show for my work after 2 weeks. I felt like she would be disappointed if we came to her now. I needed to dig a little deeper, I decided as I bit into a steaming hot ham and cheese sandwich, into all the pieces that were missing. I needed to know what was behind that secret door and what Noami tried to hide in this box. Maybe I'd finally get some answers.

Thomas and I switched seats so he could drive as I sifted through our newfound information. I waited patiently, not wanting to get any precious papers dirty with cheese or grease as I stuffed my face in the car. Finally, with a full stomach and hands wiped off with a napkin, I opened the lid. Old sawdust smell wafted to my nose.

Newspaper articles, missing people reports, a photo of Madara and two women, and tons of blue paper resembling the blueprints. I pulled out a folded piece of paper that had burn marks on the edges. I was careful to unfold it. There was a picture of Madara's face, and then underneath in scraggily writing read "Sorcerer of Konoha, beware!"

There was another pieced folded on top. The paper wasn't as yellowed as the other and there were no burn marks. I opened it just as carefully. It wasn't Madara this time. It was the father from the murder, Fugaku was it? Bold red letters lined the bottom of the parchment, saying "Cursed family of demons!"

How awfully interesting.

I went to grab a third piece when the road started getting bumpy. I looked out the window. We started the tread up the dirt path to the manor. I quickly put the papers back and put the lid on. We needed to sneak this into Jonathan's van without getting caught. Then, I'd make up some excuse to leave and come out here to search through my treasure trove. After sneaking up to the van and safely locking our prized possession inside, we ascended the staircase to the manor. It might have been my chipper mood from finally discovering something, but the clouds didn't seem so grey today.

To my surprise everyone was sitting in the living room, even Sasuke. Jonathan fiddled with an ancient tube TV, adjusting the antennas on top. I'd never noticed it before, hidden in the corner, since the rooms were downcast and curtains always closed. Ino wielded a blocky remote in her manicured hand, fishing through fuzzy channels. Sasuke sat on the couch with his arms folded and furthest away from Ino.

Sasuke was the first to notice us. He simply nodded our way. Ino, always keeping an eye on the handsome suspect, noticed his movement and waved to us.

"Hey! Took you long enough!" She piped.

"Sorry about that, we ran into some…unexpected obstacles." I replied.

Sasuke's eyebrow popped up. He had to be curious to know what we found, if anything at all. I couldn't show him, not yet. He was still labeled a suspect. I didn't even know if we'd found anything _relevant_. I needed that excuse now, I was dying to dig through history. It looked like Sasuke was about to ask about it. Think, Sakura, think!

"We stopped at a gas station and I bought you one of those mocha lattes you like so much Ino, but I left it in the car. Will you go with me?" I asked sweetly.

Ino wasn't much of a fan for chocolate, that was my area, but I knew mocha lattes was her kryptonite.

True to her girlish nature, she wouldn't let me to go somewhere alone. Ino hopped up and strode toward me. She and I both knew we were due for some girl time anyways. I turned at the door back to the men in the group, and narrowed my eyes.

"Boys," I said in a threatening tone, "behave." And continued with Ino back towards the Manor's entrance.

Once we passed out of sight I pushed her towards the van.

"Hey! What about my latte?" She whined, and I shushed her.

"I lied, I needed to talk to you alone." I told her. I gingerly unlocked the back and we crawled inside. I shut it softly, then whirled on her.

We spoke at the same time:

"So what happened?!"

We stared, waiting for the other to continue. I broke the silence.

"You go first." I suggested. I couldn't wait any longer; I had to know if Sasuke was as conniving and suspicious as we were making him out to be. Had they found a secret hidey hole? Mad scientist lab? Torture chamber?

"Well," Ino started hesitantly, looking down. She looked deflated. That meant a good thing for me right? She'd be upset at Sasuke for ditching her, after all.

"I was determined to follow what you said and asked Sasuke to give me a tour as soon as you left." She said slowly. I frowned.

"Don't tell me he said no. You weren't supposed to take no for an answer."

"He said no. Then alright, after like the fifth time."

My eyes sparkled.

"He led me off towards the kitchen first, somewhat reluctant. He kept to himself mostly."

"And?"

"And he gave me the tour of the entire first floor. We just walked around the house for 15 minutes looking at rooms, then came back here. I took that as 'end of tour'." She admitted.

My mouth dropped. "You're kidding."

"No. Like I said, he was reluctant but gentlemanly about it. He's been sitting in there watching us fiddle with the TV since. " She let out a dreamy but depressed sigh. "It's such a shame he refuses to fall for my feminine charm."

I sighed too. I had planned on Sasuke _not_ being reliable when she asked him to give her a tour, but this worked in favor for him I guess. Maybe he wasn't as suspicious as we kept making him out to be. I didn't want Sasuke to be bad. He had the typical suspicious characteristics. He was quiet, aloof, and sometimes (okay, most of the time) off putting, but I didn't feel any malevolent intent. I saw stubbornness. Maybe even…sorrow and loneliness. He had to be feeling lonely spending all this time here with weirdos like us. But what was the sadness lurking in him? He hid it well, but I could see it in his silent demeanor. A quiet suffering he pulled deep down, hiding from the world.

I knew that look all too well. I'd seen it on my own face for a long, long time after my parents died.

 _'His mother is dying you dolt, and here you are treating him like he's the one to blame._ ' My thoughts huffed.

"It seems as though Sasuke will remain an enigma. We'll back off, but be weary of him." I said softly. Ino's baby blues lit up.

"Definitely." She chirped.

I had a feeling she wasn't thinking about the investigation, but rather Sasuke's physique. Honestly, I couldn't blame her. I acted all high and mighty, but it was difficult not sneaking a peek. He was the type of man that just caught your eye, even if you were walking down a busy New York street.

"So," Ino continued, "What did you find at Mikoto's?"

"We didn't go to Mikoto's. We went back to Emberson's historical society." I revealed.

Ino scrunched her nose and stuck her tongue out.

"Gross, why would you wanna go back there and see Naomi again?"

"The original plan was for Thomas to distract her and I would sneak into the back, but it didn't work out that way." I explained.

"She wasn't there? Sounds like you'd be happy about that."

"She was…but at the same time she wasn't." Images of her slumped body passed over my eyes. I shuddered.

Ino frowned. "I don't follow."

"Noami was there, but it wasn't her. It was her body and everything but she was completely different, like she was being controlled."

"She probably has some personality disorder." Ino reasoned. But it wasn't that simple. She hadn't seen what happened, or what was consuming Naomi's arm. I showed her the picture I took on my phone. She took it from me and squinted her eyes.

"Ew, looks like an infected tattoo." Ino stated.

"It isn't. It's the same mark Mikoto has that started running up her arm. The one she says is making her sick."

Ino zoomed in closer and gasped. The bubbling skin was unsightly, even on a camera phone. She pushed the phone back into my hands.

"That's terrible."

"And get this, there was a box full of Uchiha history she was hiding from us in the back."

"I knew she was a bitch. Why would someone do that?"  
"Someone who had something to hide."

"But controlling another person? Are you sure she wasn't being blackmailed?" I shook my head at her.

"Not in the conventional sense." I replied.

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused.  
"Don't be alarmed…but some spirits can learn to jump bodies." I explained. Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows drew together.  
"…what?"

"It takes time. And a lot of power. But I've never heard of anything doing it from so far away…" I said, wondering myself. I never  
"You think some ghost from the Manor did this?"  
"It's too coincidental not to be."

"But, the place isn't even that active. You even said it yourself, it doesn't seem haunted."

"Were missing something. I know we are. And the answer could be right here."

I opened the box in front of us.

"We don't have a lot of time before they wonder where we are. Get digging."

TTTTTTTTT

This Madara guy might as well been H.H. Holmes.

Blueprint after blueprint was spread out in front of us, all in multiple designs and versions of the house. Some had designs for doors I didn't see in the manor, some had extra rooms, one even had a plan to build a third floor! However, the initials at the bottom of each blueprint were never the same. It was a different contractor each time. I knew a brief amount about H.H. Holmes. He hired separate workers to designs traps in his building, then kill them and hire new ones so no one but him knew the full layout of the place making it easy for him to trap victims.

Why would Madara do the same? It could've been Fugaku as well, planning on adding on to the Manor, but most of the dates were within a couple years of each other. Madara was Fugaku's grandfather, he wouldn't have been old enough to order these commissions.

"Explains why that room was covered, I guess." Thinking about the hidden room at the end of the hall. "Maybe they simply remodeled over it."

"And left the door? That's too strange, where does it even lead?" Ino asked, curiosity peaked. There was a swell of pride in my chest at Ino's interest in being involved. I really did miss spending time with her like we used to. Even if it was about dead people and not idle girl stuff.

"That's what everything points to, doesn't it?" That door. I needed to get inside. Whoever had covered it had done so for a reason they didn't want others to know about. Maybe it held the reason behind this 'curse'.

There was no way Sasuke would let us break the door down though. We had to find a different way in; we had to find the key.

"That hidden door in the Manor had a keyhold. There has to be a key. We didn't look hard enough the first time." I said. We didn't even know what we were looking for the first time.

Ino nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah…"

The blueprints weren't the only disturbing find. Almost a dozen missing person reports were sitting in a pile to my right, each with the last name 'Uchiha'. Next to it was a stack of newspapers going back to Madara's time with headlines like _'Uchiha killer still at large!'_ And slowly, Madara's good Samaritan image fell with each missing relative until it got to the same article I'd seen before of a bitter, angry man. The Uchiha curse had started long before the murders I was investigating. I gazed back into Madara's ink eyes.

"Maybe there's some truth behind what they say about him messing with dark magic." I said, pointing to Madara.

Magic wasn't real. But, satanic rituals was. It wouldn't be too off the wall to connect him to the occult if the townspeople were calling him a sorcerer.

I took a sharp intake of breath.

I would've noticed if it was something much darker here, wouldn't I? Perhaps it was a priest they needed, not me…

"Sakura, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing." I stuttered.

I didn't want to freak Ino out more than she already was so I couldn't tell her where my thoughts had turned. How could I tell that there wasn't a demonic entity roaming these halls, risen over a hundred years ago by the Uchiha? That was the goal of most occult groups, to raise the evil entities they worshipped. What if Madara, or another follower, was successful? The townspeople had even called them demons, there had to be a reason. Madara had underground dealings back in Japan and even Mikoto said he was fascinated by the dark arts.

I quit. I needed to quit. Right now. I couldn't deal with it if it was…

I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself.

I had to think about others, like Mikoto. She was counting on me. She wouldn't deceive me if she knew if there was something darker here. There's been zero evidence of such a thing; I shouldn't get worked up. I opened my eyes with determination and reached for the last pile.

1905 September 1st: Uchiha Harvest Ball to celebrate season crops.

1905 November 28th was the murder of the main family.

1908 July 13th was when the other Sasuke Uchiha disappeared

1910 July 13th: Village hidden in the leaves goes up in flames.

I wonder if Sasuke's disappearance had been related to the town being burnt down. It was the same date, only 2 years later. The death of all his loved ones must have driven him mad when he barricaded himself in the manor. Did he take it out on the town and then return to the Manor to die?

Maybe Sasuke was the black mass roaming the halls. So much pain, so much tragedy he had to endure, it easily could've trapped his spirit here and left a painful residue of memories in it's wake.

"Oh! Sakura, here's a picture of one of the Uchiha brother's at the harvest ball." Ino told me as she handed my a newspaper clipping.

It wasn't Sasuke; it was the older brother, Itachi. He had a strong jaw and long midnight hair draping past his collar in a low ponytail. He looked friendly, a small toothless smile to the camera as it captured him walking past. He was a beautiful man.

"He looks like Sasuke." Ino wondered outloud. I nodded, he looked very similar to the present Sasuke. but there were subtle differences between the eyes and hair. All Uchiha had prominent features they shared with their kin, so it would make sense.

"Itachi is Sasuke's great grandfather. He got most of his good looks from him." I commented.

Ino's eyebrow stretched up in a questioning manner at my comment, but I ignored it.

"So, where does that leave us now?" I inquired out loud.

"Still square one? Cause I sure as hell don't know anything." Ino commented.

"No. I think I'm starting to piece it together. The house must be stuck in a loop, recording every tragedy that happened and then replaying it. I just have to break it, somehow."

"A…loop?"

"Places that have experienced extreme tragedies or pain are marked. They become trapped in that one moment, replaying it over and over. It can happen to a person's soul who's endured too much as well." I fingered through the missing report files. "One of these people got trapped. I just need to figure out which one and exploit it."

"But that doesn't explain the curse." Ino stated.

I thought harder.

"Maybe it does. Madara believed in black magic, maybe more Uchiha did. People with strong spiritual energy after dying can mess with living people. So far as to make them sick."

"So you're saying a vengeful spirit is after the remaining Uchihas?"

"I'm sure of it now. One that can travel long distances, like to Mikoto's home or Emberson. If we can find a way to break the spell that is woven in this house, it'll be forced out."

Ino gave me a tired expression. "You do know how crazy this sounds, right?"

I turned to Ino with a grim smile. "I've heard and seen crazier."

* * *

We left the box in the van, contents tucked back inside safely. I felt more trusting towards Sasuke, but I wasn't ready to share with him the information we'd found. I didn't want to sound as crazy as Ino said. I made her promise not to tell anyone, not even Thomas, until we were in the safety of the van again. It wasn't Sasuke overhearing us that I was worried about anymore; it was the entity.

Something old, something powerful. But it hadn't driven us out yet.

 _'It's hiding. It knows what were looking for and wants us to leave. The only way to do that is if we don't find anything.'_

That's why the historical society was trashed; we were asking the right questions.

I held a renewed confidence when I walked. I was getting somewhere. But the next step was finding that key and getting into that room, I could feel it. I finally had the upper hand

* * *

It only took a few short hours until the sun was setting. Calm and collected, outwardly I waited patiently until it hit midnight. Inwardly, I was bouncing off the walls because things were moving forward and soon enough I'd have this investigation solved with a snap of my fingers. The only thing standing in my way of success, a missing key.

I excitedly barked orders, with Jonathan prepping the equipment and the rest of us standing around until he was ready. Then, it was time to split into groups again. My plan was to keep the partners the same, but switch locations. The boys would take the whole first floor, and us girls would take the second floor. I would have ample time to check the three furnished bedrooms. If there was a key anywhere in the house, my first guess would be there.

I fiddled with my earpiece, making sure it was in correctly, and then cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. Thomas nodded at my cue.

"So, are we doing the same thing tonight? Clear the floors, look for creepy shadows-" Jonathan started to ask, but Sasuke cut him off.

"I would like to be paired with Sakura this time." Sasuke said with a straight face.

We all stared at him.

"Why?" I blurted without thinking. I needed Sasuke with someone else so I could check out those rooms. I feared that if he went with me, anything I did would be scrutinized under his watchful eye. It would be hard to sneak things past him.

"I think we work well together." He replied, and shrugged as if it was common knowledge. I didn't know if he had an ulterior motive or was genuine. He could be keeping an eye on me, making sure I _didn't_ find something.

I glanced over at Thomas and Ino, who'd be paired together as a result. It left my stomach uneasy, knowing both of them weren't that brave in the face of danger. But they were my team, I trusted them didn't I? Of course I did. And now that Sasuke wasn't my suspect anymore, I needed to stop analyzing everything he did for clues. If I opened up, maybe he would too.

This could be a good thing.

Both Thomas and Ino's begging eyes were on me. They didn't want to walk around together with how much they squabbled. And both of them were chickens, one stair creak and they'd be running for the hills holding hands. I'd been leading everything for so long that they were lacking confidence in themselves. I suffocated them and they had no room to grow.

"Alright." I said slowly. "Thomas and Ino will take the first floor, Sasuke and I will take the second floor."

Sasuke's brow furrowed.

"I don't care for being up there." He said quickly. I remembered him saying that when we'd first met him. Ino also said that her tour had only included the first floor, not the second. Was there something upstairs he was afraid of?

"I won't force you to go anywhere you don't want to go." I replied honestly. I dragged Thomas with me everywhere like a rag doll when we did investigations because frankly he was scared of everything. But if there was something he genuinely feared, I would never force him to face it. It would be too cruel to push someone to the edge.

He was resting on the wall, arms folded and eyes questioning. He studied me for a minute. Then he sighed and stood up straight.

"Alright." He relented.

I nodded.

"Meet back here at 5, or contact each other earlier if something happens." I ordered, and then we were off into the night.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Being alone with Sasuke was strange. Usually when I was around Thomas or Ino there was an uncomfortable silence of me straining my ears to hear anything as they trailed behind me. They had a hard time being quiet though. I did my best to tune them out so I could focus. Sasuke was as quiet as a mouse, but my whole body was aware of his presence. Now that I was more comfortable around Sasuke his presence wasn't overwhelming, but he still had a strong pull. He had a powerful stature and an heir of dominance that took over the room.

This made me clumsier than usual.

"Oh!" I gasped as the tip of my toe hit a step, but I caught myself before I stumbled over. I looked over to find Sasuke staring and sheepishly grinned.

We made it to the hall of missing portraits at the top of the steps. Now to decide which way to go first. There were two furnished rooms to the right of me which doubled the chance of me finding something, but I'd already discovered a missing article in the room to the left. There was also the mysterious door that lead to the unknown over there.

I crossed my arms and looked both ways, trying to decide which way I should go. I looked to Sasuke for guidance. He was studying the missing pictures, reading names on the plaques underneath.

"Which way do you want to go first?" I asked him. He had expressed concern coming up here, maybe there was an area he'd had a bad experience that I could check out later without him. He looked down both sides as if he was contemplating the best of the worse.

"To the east." He suggested. I nodded, and we continued walking side by side down the corridor. I held my hands behind my back as silence fell between us again. I remembered the last time we'd been up here Sasuke had so rudely called me annoying with a smirk on his face. Did he really think I was annoying? I know I could be bossy at times, but once I got into detective mode it just took over. That was just business Sakura; not casual Sakura.

I peeked up at him.

"Have you seen it? The spirit." I asked. He looked down at me, one questioning eyebrow up.

"Aren't we not supposed to be talking?" He asked back.

"Oh, uh yeah. Your right." I said, turning away from him and gluing my eyes to a door at the end of the hall. I resisted the urge to peek at him again as I felt his eyes on me. We took a few more steps that barely made any noise, but sounded like an elephant in my head.

"I've seen it a couple of times." He confessed. My head shot back towards him.

"Really? What does it look like?" I asked excitedly, but then reminded myself to stay calm.

Sasuke frowned. "I'm not sure, like a dark cloud? I do my best to keep away from it." He said.

"So, you must be here a lot then huh?" I asked, fishing for answers.

"When I want to be. Someone has to take care of this place."

"You could always hire someone."

"No, I have to make sure it has the proper care." He said seriously.

My eyes started wandering, I tried not to look too invested. I backed off the questions so he wouldn't think I was nosy. We had reached our destination anyways.

The house was riddled with empty rooms and locked doors and it was hard to keep track, but I knew this was the red bedroom. I opened the door with ease and stalked inside. Sasuke hesitated at the doorway, looking around, and then took a step in. He didn't move as I walked around the vast room, fully taking it in. He looked like a child awkwardly standing at the end of an underwear isle as his mother shopped for new undies.

This was one of the few rooms that remained dusty and untouched. There was a king size bed with a velvet red comforter and some pillows. There was a nightstand with an oil lamp, a dresser in the corner of the room, a lavish desk littered with papers and an armchair. On the far side was a giant landscape painting of the woods and on the opposite was a watercolor painting of mountains. The decorations were simply and few, not what I'd expect from a family so wealthy.

My attention drew to the desk. Sasuke followed my eyes to were I was looking, and simply crossed his arms and didn't move. I took that as confirmation that I could touch things. I strode over the cherry wood desk and examined the dusty mess of papers on top. They were scattered haphazardly, as if someone was looking for something. I flashed my flashlight over top and squinted my eyes, but I couldn't read any of them threw the dust. I blew over them gently. There, much better.

Medical documents? Reports of names of people with different ailments and treatments that weren't practiced anymore. Scribbled at the bottom in big letters was ' I.U."

"IU?" I wondered out loud.

"Itachi." Sasuke answered from the doorway. I looked up at him; he scanned the room slowly. He didn't want to be in here. This must've been the room he wanted to avoid.

I shuffled the papers a bit, careful not to choke on any dust. It was all medical papers and reports. Itachi must've been a doctor. I stepped to the side and knocked something over. I shined my light on it. I brown leather bag. Looks like Itachi had brought his work with him, then urgently had to leave in the middle.

Next I went to the dresser to raid the drawers. Sasuke coughed as I went to open the first one. I looked over at him.

"Those are someone's personal items." He chastised.

"I'm not going to take anything." I defended. "I'm just trying to find any clues."

"I don't think you'll find them in an underwear drawer." I peeked in the cracked drawer I was about to open and blushed. Now I was the awkward child.

"Why don't you do it then? He was your ancestor after all." I told him, stepping back.

"I think I'll stay right here, it's more respectful." He replied. I rolled my eyes and muttered, "scaredy cat" under my breath. I felt Sasuke's glare on me as I turned toward the bed and stuck my tongue out at him. I patted down the blankets and pillows, feeling for any lumps or bumps underneath. Nothing, it was as smooth as satin. I huffed. Hopefully, I'd have better luck in the next room.

"Come on, I have somewhere else I want to check out." I told him.

The blue room was similar to the red one in its simplicity. The main difference between them was that this room had a fireplace, a couch, and a pelt rug at the far end of the room opposite the bed. Unlike Itachi's desk, this one looked empty except for some heavy looking books. I eyed the dresser first, but I knew Sasuke wouldn't want me digging through it. That left the bed, the desk, in the couch, or under the rug. Sasuke stood next to the bed and watched me search.

"You could help, you know." I said haughtily.

"Is there something specific your looking for?" He asked suspiciously. I shot up from looking under the rug. "No. Just, like I said. Clues."

"You're looking for the key to that door that was covered up, aren't you?" He accused, although his face remained blank.

"Do you know where it is?" I asked, hopeful.  
"No." He retorted. He crossed his arms and leaned on the bed's headboard.

"Damn. I thought after what I found-"  
"What'd you find?" Sasuke asked, narrowing his eyes. He knew I'd been holding back information. I scratched my head.

"Well, I told you I went to do research. I found some old blueprints and articles about Madara that makes me believe there's something behind it."

"Why do you need to dig around? I though you got rid of these things all the time."

I huffed as I dropped the rug and got up off my knees.

"I don't just get rid of ghosts Sasuke, it's more complicated than that."

"How does bringing up the past help? Just, do what you always do."

"Because I need to know what I'm up against, and why. You really think it's just going to tell me? Ghosts only stick around because they're trapped and have unresolved business. The only way to get rid of them is to find out _why_." I challenged, walking up to him. I didn't seem as menacing when my forehead only went up to his chin.

He looked away. Sasuke wasn't happy about me searching his family's history, I understood it was a personal subject for him. But if he wanted this thing gone, if he wanted things made right, it was necessary for me to do.

"I wouldn't nose through such personal things if I didn't feel they were important." I said, trying to ease the air between us. Sasuke sighed, perhaps to show he understood.

"Just be careful of what you find." He said, glancing at me. I smiled and replied, "Always."

* * *

The purple room was my last hope, but I saved the best for last. This room had a women's touch and more decorative with flower paintings and small antiques. I quickly walked in and went for my usual search spots, until I noticed Sasuke still standing in the hallway.

"Aren't you going to come in?"

He shook his head.

"No. Bad memories are here." He replied softly. Ah, so this was the room. I didn't bother him anymore about it and continued my search as Sasuke watched from outside. The bed had tons of throw pillows, some frilly, some suede, and most useless. I patted everything down. Nothing. I hurried over to the desk. Some business document lay there with Fugaku Uchiha's signature, but there were only small office supplies in the drawers. Nothing again. My last hope was the vanity, filled with lavish jewelry and expired make up. I sat down on the print patterned stool, and softly fingered the dust free spot where there was a missing necklace. Did Sasuke know about this?

I turned to ask him until I heard a faint sound. I held my breath.

 _Criiiiiick_

I whipped around to face Sasuke, face inquisitive.

"Did you hear that?" I whispered, creeping closer to him.

"Yeah, like a door opening." He breathed, looking around in the hall.

My earpiece cackled to life. Sasuke jumped in surprise.

"Yo, Thomas, Ino, are either of you in the drawing room next to base camp?" Jonathan asked.

* * *

 **Oh cliffhangers how I love/despise you! So many questions still in the air. Whats the crick noise? Is it Ino or Thomas in the drawing room? Why doesn't Sasuke want to walk into the purple room? All will be revealed...in time.**

 **Until next time!**

 **End Chapter 9**


	11. The Lagging Poltergeist

**Sorry it took me forever to finish this chapter, but it's chalk filled with interesting things….**

 **Read and find out. Then review!**

 **Chapter 10: The Lagging Poltergeist**

* * *

"Yo, Thomas, Ino, are either of you in the drawing room next to base camp?" Jonathan asked.

Another male voice came through.

"No, were both in the kitchen getting a snack."

I almost face palmed. ' _Getting a snack in the middle of an investigation. I should've known.'_ Those two goons.

"I swear I just saw someone standing over there-"

There was a crash at the other end of the line.

Panicked, I got up from my stool and rushed towards the door. Sasuke was already gone. I rounded the door and dashed down the hallway until I heard another creaking noise. I froze, and slowly turned around. The sound came from behind me. The hidden door!

The mayhem downstairs would be handled, I told myself as I creeped towards the door. My body buzzed with anticipation. I stopped right in front and reached for the knob. I jiggled it. Locked! Then where was the noise coming from?!

 _Crickkkkkkk._

I snapped my head to the right with wide eyes. The creaking came from the room to the right, a plain door just like all the others. I couldn't remember if it was locked or open the last time we came through here. I watched as the knob turned slowly. More creaking came from behind it, until there was the click of the door unlocking and it stopped.

My first instinct was to rush to the door and throw it open in hopes of catching something, but my body reacted slow. My shaky hand came up at the same pace as a sloth, and as soon as I gripped the brass a pang shot through me.

I pulled my hand away from the knob as if it burned me.

I took a deep breath and tried the knob again, successfully. Ever so gently I pushed the door open. The door screeched loudly as it dragged open. Well, the element of surprise was gone now. The room was dust, empty, and disappointing. I sighed. There was nothing in here, not even a desk! I went to turn away, but stopped when I saw a glint out of the corner of my eye. I squinted and waved my phone around, using the light to look at the room better.

There is was again, a sparkle reflecting off my light. A necklace! Why was it sitting in an empty room? I gasped. Was it the necklace missing in the purple room? But why would it be in here?

I took a step closer to look into the doorway. Right as I was at the threshold I felt pins and needles shooting up my legs, trying to tell me something.

 _Danger._

My body urged me to flee from this room. I became aware that I was drawn here, along, and there was a dark, heavy feel I didn't notice before. I coughed as I felt it go down my throat. Something wasn't right.

But this necklace had some significance, and I'd been looking for it. I just had to go in and grab it. It all seemed….easy. Why would it suddenly appear here?

Images of Mikoto's mark and of Naomi's glazed dead-like eyes flashed through my mind. My intuition warned that there was something waiting for me to come in. Just like what had happened with Ino. I scanned the room again more carefully, checking for the smallest movement.

 _'In the corner.'_ My intuition whispered. I shined my camera in the far corner. A loud gasp ripped from my throat. The black mass, dense and in the form of a man's shadow, standing not 20 feet from me. It remained perfectly still, even though it had to know I was openly staring at it. I felt a tug on my shoulder, trying to push me inside.

My legs were still pins and needles and I was shook to the bone. I wasn't going anywhere. My body prevented me from coming in, but it stopped me from leaving too. Very few times I had a run in with a spirit that stopped me in my tracks. It was encased in ill feelings, and I felt sick to my stomach as I stood there. My stomach was churning.

My throat ran dry in horror as it moved. The black mass remained still, but something inside it moved. Emerging. I let out a silent scream.

A hand, bony and white. Long, thing fingers slowly peeked out. Then the palm and wrist. It felt like I was watching an old horror picture show. 'Danger! Danger! Get away!' I yelled inside, but something about it was so terrifying and surreal, like a horrible dream, that I couldn't turn away or move. I instantly knew that whatever was in there had done dastardly things to innocent people.

Like Naomi.

"No." I whispered, but it came out rough and crackly.

My eyes hardened, determination brimming in them. Adrenaline whipped over the fear and overtook my blood like a tsunami. This thing wouldn't get me; I'd get it first.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I said as loud as I dared.

The visible fingers curled at the sound of my voice. Then a deep ring. A chuckle bounced off the walls. It was disturbing and put the fear back in me, but not enough to take control. I stood my ground, no matter how fearsome the sound was.

"Who. Are. You." I asked again, clearer and stronger.

"Sakura!"

I heard Sasuke's voice coming closer, stealing my attention away. It was the first time I'd heard such a worried tone come from his lips. I opened my mouth to reply, but I never did. The room became heated and blasted out of the room. I held my arms up as a shield from the heat wave. Feeling of rage attacked my senses. I thought about the curse mark, the Uchiha's dying from this disease. The creature in front of me, who was most likely responsible.

And then Sasuke, who unknowingly rushed toward it.

"No! Sasuke, don't come any closer!" I yelped, but he paid no heed. Sasuke stopped short of the door, feeling the effects of the heat. Finally I moved again. I had to get him away from here before something awful happened! I pushed against his shoulders, not caring about the warm tingle I felt knowing I touched him, but he stood there like a mountain. I feared he'd be the next victim if I didn't get him out of here fast.

Sasuke grabbed my hands and looked down at me, confused.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a calm voice. I wanted to let out a frustrated howl.

"I'm trying to protect you!" I grunted, pulling my hands from his.

"Protect _me_?" He exclaimed, emphasizing me. I nodded hurriedly.

"Yes! That things in there-" I turned to point to the door. My mouth hung open.

The door was closed, and all menacing aura gone. Whatever was in that room had disappeared. I didn't know whether to be breathe in relief or bang my head against the wall. At least now I'd come face to face with the entity. It reassured me that something really _was_ here. I glanced down at the knob and reached for it. It'd wouldn't move; locked again.

Sasuke followed me downstairs as I told him everything. All the way back to what happened at the historical building. He remained quiet and politely listened, only nodding once or twice to show he was paying attention. He was taking everything in I guess. Sasuke had a strong poker face. I wondered what he looked like when he took it off. If he ever did.

"Things were being thrown off the shelves." Sasuke told me as made our way into the messy drawing room. "Your friend was almost hit with a teapot, but she moved in time." He meant Ino of course; I could tell by the unamused tone he used.

"Where were you?!" Ino asked worriedly. She ran up to me and threw her arms around my neck. I hugged her back.

"being lured into a trap." I said solemnly.

Shattered pieces of old white china were everywhere in the room, the doors to the curio they'd been resting in were barely swinging on the hinges. A lamp that'd been covered with a sheet wasn't just knocked over, it was on the other side of the room! The whole room lay trashed, just like the historical building.

My lips formed a grim line. More and more events were linking this entity as the culprit behind all our problems. We'd gotten only one step forward on a 400 meter track.

"What?" She gasped, but I focused on assessing the room. What significance would there be in here? It didn't appear special and as far as my research told me no tragedies had happened in here. But it was close quarters to base camp, maybe that was the reason. I peeked into base camp. Things were damaged in here too, although not to the same extent. Jonathan used his body as a shield for all the important (and expensive) equipment. The computer was unharmed, thank goodness. That's were all our data was recorded.

Everyone was OK, and no longer doubting the Manor's reputation.

* * *

"I heard a noise, I thought it was one of you two coming back early." Jonathan pointed to Ino and Thomas who were seated on a delicate looking canape back in base camp. "I got up to check things out, but before I knew it something flew into the room and smashed against the wall." I could see the spot from my seated position on the Persian rug. There was a crack in the wall right above the monitors. "Then more were coming. I did my best to cover the screens, but one got clipped." He said pouting. He pointed to the upper right screen that donned a large crack running down from the corner and webbing out to the middle. "By the time Ino and Thomas came into the drawing room, half of the china set was being thrown everywhere. It's the first time I've seen such a strong poltergeist, especially this close. It started to die down when Sasuke came in, but the cabinet was almost empty by then."

"Poltergeists feed off living people's energy to give them strength, especially emotions." I recited. "It needed to be close to one of us in order to do that."

I pulled my knees up and tucked my chin in. The first night we came, the entity blacked out or screens and drained our camera's batteries. Right after it appeared. Tonight, it attacked before appearing. Obviously, it didn't want to be seen, but we already knew of its presence. Recent events made it impossible for the spirit to be stuck in a residual loop. Spirits in loops were forced to replay tragic events over and over and were oblivious to the living world around it. This spirit was consciously and actively doing things out of pattern and aware that we were here.

So what was its end game? Why kill members of your own family by making them sick with an untreatable disease? I thought harder, but it proved difficult when my ears were filled with Jonathan's raving.

"This was a new screen, specially made double wide!" He whined, reaching out to the inanimate object as if it was a lost loved one. My eyes glued to the cracked, but not broken, screen.

"Does it still work?" I blurted.

Jonathan shrugged. "well, yeah, but the screen's going to be fuzzy."

"Play it back please." I politely demanded. Everyone looked at me confused, except Thomas. Realizing what I meant, Thomas piped in, "Where is the camera for that screen? There might be something on it the ghost didn't want us to see. Hence why that's the only screen damaged."

Jonathan nodded in agreement. "Alright."

 _Click! Thwack!_

The screen flashed to life.

"Rewind it to before the flying teapots, when you thought someone was in here." Ino suggested, and I smiled at her eagerness to chip in.

"Okay. I think it was around here." Jonathan replied, swiping the mouse to rewind. He right clicked, and hit play.

Sasuke was in the frame; this was the camera set up in the upstairs hallway. I must've been in the purple room because I wasn't in the shot, Sasuke stood alone at the door. Jonathan cranked the volume up. We sat in silence and watched the scene unfold.

"Did you hear that?"

Right before the poltergeist activity, Sasuke and I were hearing things. I'd completely forgotten! I watched in strange fascination; I saw small movement in the corner of the shot. That door!

Then the loud crash came. Sasuke hurriedly turned and-

The screen froze and the picture started breaking up.

"What the?" Jonathan moved to fiddle with his computer, but before he could the screen lagged, skipped, and came back to life. All the sudden I was walking down the hallway with no Sasuke in sight. So eerie, watching myself as I stood in front of the door, silent for a full moment. And then I whispered, "Who are you?"

The scene continued, but my stuggle couldn't be seen externally. The only one that knew what really happened was me. Not too long after Sasuke rushed back down the hallway toward me.

I moved closer to the screen, sensing something off.

It was the moment I turned to Sasuke to push him away, something behind me moved. The door lagged, by itself, like a faulty video game. The rest of the screen remained fine, but now the door stood shut. One moment it was open, and literally the very next it was closed.

How was that possible?!

"I…cant tell if that's just the video or if the door magically shut without moving." Thomas gaped, wide eyed. He played back the scene; the same thing happened.

"I can't either." I confessed. Surrounding me was dazed looks and nodding heads of agreement. Even through Sasuke's poker face I saw confusion. Silence filled the room as we all sat there, not knowing how to respond or reason our way through what we saw.

Jonathan shut off the screens, hand shaky, and broke the silence.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think we should call it a night." He suggested.

Normally I wouldn't be happy about cutting our precious time short, but he was right. Certain things took time to process and my invisible battle with the spirit exhausted me.

"Agreed." I sighed tiredly.

Everyone nodded, except for Sasuke. His face full of gloom, looking at his ancestors broken China that was probably worth more than my whole college tuition. Jonathan safeguarded his equipment with boxes as he got ready to call it a night. Ino and Thomas were walking out of the room hurriedly, leaving the mess on the ground. I walked up to Sasuke and offered to help.

"I'll help you clean this up if you want."

Sasuke sighed and ran a hand through his ebony locks.

"It's alright, this is what I'm here for." He said, but with an undertone I didn't understand. Perhaps I imagined it. "Go to bed," He prodded lightly. I gave him a smile, a small reconciliation for causing him trouble.

"Goodnight Sasuke."

* * *

Another night of restless sleep. I relived the events of today. First, Naomi staring at me with red eyes and speaking in a deep, dark voice that sent shivers up my spine. Hearing her speak felt like déjà vu, although I was certain I'd never heard such a thing in my life. Then the black figure, the ghastly hand. The chuckle. All of it was like remembering some bad dream.

It's the same voice.

Then, instead of the hand emerging, a red face appears, peeking out slowly. Getting closer, bigger, until it takes up the whole room…

I gasped.

I awoke in the van, laying in a flannel blue shirt inside my green tough camper sleeping bag. Ino was only an arm's length away, facing the wall and away from me. I hurried to calm my breathing so I wouldn't wake her.

The nightmare changed. Now I mixed real life with my fears, which only made it feel that much more real.

'It's just a dream.' I reminded myself. 'It can't harm you.'

I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hour taking quiet, slow breaths. The weekend was over. Tomorrow we'd have to drive back to our everyday lives as this spirit tortured innocent people. I needed to come up with a plan before we returned. I shivered from the cold and turned over in my sleeping bag, cuddling in to get comfy. Hopefully to fall back into a dreamless sleep.

My feelings were torn between wanting to stay and never coming back.

* * *

Sasuke was nowhere to be found as we packed up Jon's equipment the next day. Now that base camp was a potential target, we'd move his station back into the van. I grabbed a box of old gadgets and some flashlights when I heard the tinkling of bells. A doorbell.

"Is someone at the door?" Ino asked in confusion. As far as I knew we were the only outsiders who knew the location of the Manor. Who could it be? Sasuke returning? With his aloofness I couldn't imagine him ringing the doorbell when he could easily just stalk inside.

I set my box down and walked to the front door. I opened it to come face to face with a slender, but handsome, pale man in a uniform.

Sai.

"Hello." He greeted with a cheerful smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Mikoto sent me to make sure you were alright and the Manor hadn't chased you away. It's been awhile since you've talked and she was getting worried that something happened." He droned out, clasping his hands behind him.

"Oh!" My heart churned. I felt terrible the investigation was taking so long when it concerned her health. "Yes were fine. I'm sorry we don't have much to report on, but we've identified an entity her that could be linked to her problems." I told him nicely, but the truth was I wanted him to leave already.

For some reason Sai annoyed me. He had a fake cherry disposition at all times and it gave me the creeps.

"Hey Sakura, this box is heavy. How long are you going to stand there?" I heard behind me. Ino came in struggling with a large box. Before I could respond Sai swooped past me toward Ino and gathered the box in his lanky arms.

"Let me, my lady."

Ino's eyes lit up, and she gave him a sweet smile. I rolled my eyes. He still gave me the creeps.

"Madame also wants to know if her son has been around at all to offer his help." Sai asked while carrying the box to the door. It surprised me; was that the reason why Sasuke was here? Because Mikoto wanted him to help?

"Yeah, he's helped quite a lot actually. I'm surprised he can spend so much time here." I said, baiting for any further information that was the enigma called Sasuke Uchiha.

"He's always been that way; he'll do anything to help his mother."

Sai didn't stick around much longer, thank goodness. He studied the house a bit, probably to make sure everything was in order, but even with a normally blank face I could tell being in the Manor made him uneasy. I vaguely wondered if Sai was part of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke wasn't much for showing emotion and both had dark features, but Sasuke didn't give me a creepy vibe. Perhaps Sai was a distant cousin.

Sasuke was still unfindable before we left, but he'd cleaned up the drawing room before he left. I didn't want to leave without telling Sasuke when we'd be back so the door wouldn't be locked, but it couldn't be helped and I didn't have his number.

* * *

It was back to the week days of cheering up crying children, helping nervous people take shots, helping the elderly to their beds, sleep, and nightmares. In that order. The week would pass by relatively quickly, and before I knew it, it was Thursday morning. Only a day before my return to the Manor.

"What?" I asked, taking a sip from my tea. I didn't need to look up from the newspaper to see that Ino stood there, eyeing me intently.

"I've got the weekend off again." She stated.

I sighed, dropping the newspaper down to properly regard her. She was still in her pajamas, a baby blue top and matching pants. Her arms folded across her chest, and her cornflower blues eyes were watched my every move. Her hair was still down, so long it grazed her hips. A streak of jealously ran through me at how pretty she managed to be in the mornings. It made me grumpier than usual.

"Why would you wanna go back? You hate this stuff; you've told me yourself." I said, exasperated. She didn't falter.

"I started this with you, I'm going to finish it." She said, titling her chin up. Why did she always have to confront me in the morning? I was always in the worst state when I'd just woken up. I rubbed my temples and looked away from her, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation.

I heard a clinking noise as she dropped something on the table. I leaned in to inspect it. It was a gold key, old and carved delicately. The pattern looked familiar, where had I seen that before? Right; on a doorknob.

The hidden door.

I gaped at her.

"Where did you get this?" I asked, reaching out to pick the key up. Her hand slammed over it before I could touch it, creating a cocoon. I retracted my hand and looked up at her questioningly.

"I found it in the desk drawer when I was locked in that room. I just, felt like I needed to open it and then there the key was. Before I knew it, I was shoving it down my pocket like I _had_ to take it." She explained.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked her. She looked away.

"I was going to, I forgot it was in my pocket honestly. And then we had that meeting about Sasuke, and things got strange. I knew I would need it as leverage." She told me seriously.

"Leverage? Over _me_?" I asked incredulously. Then I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Is this because you want to see Sasuke again? You don't need to bribe me, you could just ask you know-"  
"It's not about Sasuke," She said quickly. "It's about you. Your hiding something Sakura Haruno. And it has something to do with what's going on at that place. I've heard the nightmares, I pretended to be asleep but I'm worried about you. I'm part of this now too." She said.

I stared at her for a long second. Ino was always more perceptive than I gave her credit for, but I didn't know whether I should just deny it or come clean. I could be putting her in danger. But I had to tell somebody. I was suffering; I couldn't sleep at night anymore and I was always looking over my shoulder. It felt like someone watched me wherever I went, but it was worse in the Manor. I just hadn't told anybody. I couldn't quit the case though, Mikoto was depending on me.

"Alright." I conceded softly, and a relieved smile broke out on her face. I got up, putting my mug in the sink. "Sit down, I have something to show you." I ordered. She sat down quickly, lacing her hands in front of her on the table innocently and patiently. I walked off, and a minute later I was coming back with my camcorder. I hadn't used since the Montgomery case; it'd been collecting dust on my dresser, unused.

I scooted my chair next to her, and connected the camcorder to my laptop. The video popped up, and then I skipped everything but the last five minutes.

"What is it?" Ino asked.

"Just watch." I told her quietly. I played it; the part where Thomas almost knocks the vase over and sets the camera down to fix it. It's focused on me, and my mouth is moving, but I don't hear anything. My eyes are glued to the archway, and then on Ino's expression as she watched it. She scrunched her eyes.

"Wait a minute, what was _that_?" She asked while grabbing the mouse from me. She played it back, and then paused the screen. She leaned forward more. Then she lashed back and slapped a hand over her mouth.

She saw it. The figure behind me in the archway, the red face coming through even in the dark. She looked at me, worry flashing through her eyes.

"That," I said, pointing at the screen, "Has been following me since I was sixteen; the night my parents died."

* * *

 **BADUMMMMM BA!**

 **End chapter~**


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